As stickers go, these are a cut above the rest. I've cataloged odd trends and themes in past blogs, but these stickers actually add quite a bit of value when they're found adhered to the original shrink wrap...

The yellow sticker above is an original promotional tool from the 60's, the green tape was added later to preserve the shrink! Below is a sticker used on pressings from the late 70's, early 80's.

The sticker below is an excellent accompaniment to the jacket design and adds a little prestige to the piece.

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

At one time in my life I thought of myself as one helluva talented dumpster diver and a professional son of a bitch with an eye for detail who, in a micro-second, could spot a rare trashed treasure at a hundred paces. Since I have some history and knowledge on this subject, and since these are tough economic times when many of us need to find ways to cut corners and you may be tempted to take up the hobby of dumpster diving, I thought I’d suggest some rules of etiquette and some safety measures that novices may not have considered. Here are some tips:

#2- Never climb into a dumpster at a hospital; you don’t mess with medical or hazardous waste. That’s a job for HAZMAT. Between sick sheets, icky crap and errant needles, it's not a good place to hang… besides, I’m pretty sure you would find nothing worthwhile. If there was any good stuff to be had, like furniture or books, it’s already been pilfered by hospital employees, that’s why they work there.

#14- Beware of dumpster lids, they’re heavier than you think and lids have a tendency to slam down suddenly and unrepentantly in windy or even slightly breezy conditions. As with many aspects of the dive, shit happens quickly, and when you least expect it. I’ve always blamed accidents on the "garbage ghost," that nasty invisible demon that lurks in many a dumpster, protecting its secrets, seeking revenge for all its stolen and landfill-destined artifacts.

#11- Wear protective clothing that covers your legs and arms. Gloves are always a good idea, if for no other reason than you won’t leave any fingerprints. Wear good shoes or boots with solid soles: sharp objects are not a lot of fun and are inevitably hidden.

THE MULTINAUTS an all new adventure saga, set in an pangalactic
post nuke multiverse.

Episode One: Three heroes from different time periods are picked up
by a holographic spaceship and sent on a mission to rescue Falco
Quasar, a colony pilot when they are attacked by a mega corporation
and it's mutant empire.

This week the New York Times ran a cool piece on their website-- a story and its accompanying image that has been posted online before including on the Gabbro B-sides site. The image in question is the animated optical illusion (left) of the spinning woman dancer, an optical illusion that was created by Nobuyuki Kayahara -- a Japanese web-designer. This moving woman animated image acts as a quick visual test in determining what type of person you are depending on how your brain processes the optical illusion.

Reportedly, if you see the dancer spinning in a clockwise fashion you are using more of the right (creative) side of your brain and if you see the image of the woman spinning anti-clockwise you are more of a left-brained (logical) type of person. Of course, if you look at the moving image long enough you may see it spin both directions -- meaning you are both a logical and creative type.

Check it out with your eyes and see what results you get. And for more insights on this topic read the New York Times piece and the many comments it generated.

Los Angeles has many problems to deal with: overdevelopment, racial tensions, a hideous education system, a corrupt police department, transportation problems and a housing slump, just to name a few. So who do you think the L.A. Board of Supervisors decides to pick on? Yes, you guessed it, the taco trucks. District 1 County Supervisor Gloria Molina, once a champion for the barrio, has passed new restrictions for the taco truck vendors that forces the trucks to move every hour or face possible jail time and a $1000.00 fine. Taco trucks employ many people. Most of them are family-run and their livelihood depends on those trucks. Once again, the city blames its problems on hard working people with little representation.

The people behind saveourtacotrucks.org have organized Taco Truck Night on May 1st. On that day, they encourage people to spend their money at their local taco truck and to raise awareness of the bill. Also on the site is a petition that you can sign in support of the taco trucks.

A taco truck to many is more that just a place to get tacos. It is a part of the community, a place to meet, gossip and pick up some food after a hard working day when you’re too tired to cook. If you don’t eat meat, most trucks can accommodate you if you are polite about it. Some of the best dishes I’ve had at a taco truck were of the non-meat variety. All you have to do is ask.

Behind this ruling are restaurants that blame the trucks for their lack of business. Having tried many Mexican restaurants all over the city, I feel that most restaurants should put the blame on their own menu rather than the taco trucks, especially in L.A. where people will pay a little more for a better product. It’s the same thing Amoeba experienced when it first opened. Many local record stores tried to blame their misfortunes on the presence of Amoeba without looking at themselves and the dump they called a record store. Yeah…I said it!

In my perusal of this morning's news, I happened upon this in the Guardian UK:

Somewhere out there, either in the skies of California or many miles beyond - floating down the Thames, wafting across the Mississippi, bobbing over the Sargasso sea, - there is a gigantic inflatable pig that belongs to the Pink Floyd frontman. And he wants it back.

Waters' giant pig balloon was last seen on Sunday, during his closing performance at the Coachella festival. As Waters played Pigs (Three Different Ones), the two-storey-tall dirigible was released over the crowd.

Contrary to what you'd think, this is not the first time that a giant pig zeppelin has gotten away from Waters. During photo sessions for Pink Floyd's 1977 album, Animals, a helium-filled pig made a break for it from above Battersea power station. Flights were cancelled as the pig passed near Heathrow Airport, on its way to the dark side of the moon.

But this time, Roger Waters wants the pig back. Coachella organisers are offering a reward of $10,000 and four lifetime tickets should anyone find the blow-up porker. How to get in touch with them? Email lostpig@coachella.com, naturally.

Flying high in the friendly skies - The pig at Coachella

As some of you know, I don't like pigs. I don't like to eat them, I don't like to touch them, and I certainly don't like the idea that some Bunyanesque replication of one is lurking in my sweet United States of America.

I am personally offering a sum of $12 to anyone who can prove that the pig has been destroyed. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep until then...

Tonight is Walpurgis Night. Saint Walpurga was, supposedly, an 8th century nun whose relics were transferred on April 30th and her name was given to the holiday. As frequently happened during Christianity's spread across Europe, this was merely an instance of co-opting and Christianizing a much older holiday.

Before Saint Walpurga was dreamed up, 30 April was known as day that Odin died attempting to retrieve the knowledge of the runes and, ever since, the barrier between the world of the dead and the living is at its weakest on this night. For this reason, Odin's faithful build bonfires, play drums and (nowadays) shoot off guns tonight to ward off evil. In some German-speaking areas, tonight is known as Hexxenachtbecause on this night witches are said to mount their broomsticks and fly from near and far to Brocken Mountain where they "hold revels with their Gods."

In rural Bavaria, children sometimes play pranks-- wreaking destruction on gardens, TP-ing homes, smearing toothpaste in places unintended by the manufacturer, and writing graffiti. In the Rhineland boys bring trees hung with colored streamers to the houses of girls they like. A tree decorated only with white streamers indicates dislike for the recipient. In southern Swedenchildren gather greenery at twilight and adorn their homes. In Finland, they drink sparkling wine and sima (a mead) and burn strawmen imbued with ill-will and bad luck. In Estoniaand Germany, girls dress as witches and make merry.

I really wanted to spend this blog talking about the new releases from our old favorite bands Def Leppard and White Lion, but there are some other more important albums out this week that might have more people excited. Both Madonna and Portishead have some highly anticipated albums coming out today. I wanted Madonna to have to battle with Mariah Carey for the #1 album of the week, but Mariah came out a couple of weeks before Madonna, so we are left with Portishead instead to battle it out with Madonna-- a much better competitor I think.

So yes really, Def Leppard and White Lion both have albums out today. And there is a newBrett Michaels on the way as well. It has been over 20 years since White Lion released their second album Pride back in 1987. The album featured the massive song "When the Children Cry." You really could not get away from that song back then. The album did really well and I remember being obsessed with it myself. I ordered the cassette of it along with Hysteriaby Def Leppard from one of those record clubs that shipped you like 7 albums for 7 cents. Hysteria was Def Leppard's fourth album but it also came out in 1987. This was the album that really got me obsessed with Def Leppard. I was listening to the deluxe reissue version of Hysteria a couple days ago. I always forget until I listen to it, but the album is still amazing. I still have every song memorized. I am sure the album was overplayed for many and there are still many people out there scarred for life because of this album, but I really do love it. I could probably live my life without listening to White Lion again, but that one song still gets me whenever I hear it.
Just in case you were trying to remember 1987, Madonna did not release an album that year. It was the year after True Blue and we were all still in love with "Papa Don't Preach" and "Live to Tell." We had no idea of the controversy that lied ahead of us with Like A Prayer in another couple of years. I am sure there were a lot of Def Leppard fans out there that did not like Madonna, and I am sure they are still out there, but I really did love them both. I was young and really did just love myself some popular radio music. These albums made a huge impact on my life and are still somehow a part of me. It is a bit crazy to think that 20 years have passed since then, but they all have new albums out this week. I have not ventured into the new albums from White Lion or Def Leppard, and I might just skip them altogether so I can keep my memories somewhat sacred. But Madonna has been quite the busy lady since 1987-- it does really seem like her last album just came out. She seems to be always ready with a new one just when you have finished the last one. You have either worn it out or been sick of it since it came out and finally got it out of your head. I have pretended to not be a fan of Madonna a couple times over the last 20 years, but I just can't resist her or her music. She got me back then and I have not really been able to shake my love of Madonna. I have had mixed feeling about the last couple albums. I always sort of love it and like many of the songs, but I also always hope for a bit more that I get. I do respect the lady for continuing to be relevant and make albums that sound different than the last. The new album is mostly a Timbaland and Justin Timberlake album, but it is also most definitely a Madonna album. Justin Timberlake would not really exist without Madonna, so if you think about it that way, she is just using the people that she influenced to help her create a new album. I have been trying to get coworkers to place bets on what album will come out on top at Amoeba this week. Madonna will most certainly have the top album in the country this week. But I have my faith that Portishead will win the competition at Amoeba. Although based on first day sales today, the race will be much closer than I thought.

Earlier today (April 29th, 2008) Albert Hofmann, the Swiss born scientist best known for synthesizing Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (aka LSD), died of a heart attack. He was 102 years old. Two years ago in 2006, coinciding with his hundredth birthday, there was an international symposium (see clip below) -- with a good deal of publicity surrounding it at the time -- on his mind altering creation.

In addition to synthesizing LSD in 1938, Hoffman, known as the "Father of LSD," was also the first to synthesize psilocybin -- the active constituent of 'magic mushrooms' in 1958. He was also the author of several books including The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogen and LSD: My Problem Child. Additionally he wrote in excess of a hundred scientific articles.

Born in Baden, Switzerland in 1906, Hofmann graduated from the University of Zürich with a degree in chemistry in 1929 and went to work for Sandoz Pharmaceutical in Basel, Switzerland. This involved years of laboratory research which led him on to the study of Claviceps purpurea (ergot) and ergot alkaloids. This led his research to spend a few years working his way through the lysergic acid derivatives. He eventually arrived at synthesizing LSD-25 in 1938.

According to sources after minimal testing, LSD-25 was set aside as Hofmann continued with other derivatives, only four years later in 1943, re-synthesizing LSD-25 because he felt he might have missed something the first time around. And on that day in April of 1943 he was the very first human to experience the effects of LSD after accidentally ingesting a tiny amount of the mind-altering drug. Although he stopped working in research several years ago, Hofmann continued to write and work as lecturer and spokesman on psychedelics right up until the time of his death.

San Marino (aka Chan Marino - thanks to Ngoc for that tidbit) is a tiny, affluent city nestled in the San Gabriel Valley which comes in at number 48 on the list of America's least-affordable places to live. Its homes were mostly built in the second quarter of the 20th century and are in a fairly wide variety of styles-- some are actually pretty low key. Monterey Park may've been envisioned as the "Beverly Hills of East L.A." by its planners, but surely San Marino has more right to the comparison than other Easterly cities and neighborhoods. It has often, on TV and film, subbed as the West Side, East Coast or just a nice, anonymous neighborhood in such timeless, Hollywood classics asMr & Mrs. Smith, Monster-In-Law, One Hour Photo, American Wedding, Men InBlack II, and television episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, the Office, The West WingandAlias. Despite the fact that in films and TV it is used to portray genteel, white neighborhoods, in reality most of the population is Chinese-American, which is why people jokingly refer to it as Chan Marino. The population is currently 47% Asian (mostly Taiwanese and Chinese), 44% white (mostly English) and 5% Latino.

One of the pioneers of electronic music and co-composer of the first all electronic film score, Bebe Barron, died this past April 20th of natural cases at the age of 82. She along with her husband, Louis Barron, who passed away in 1989, composed the sound effects / soundtrack to the 1956 sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet.

Charlotte May Wind (her husband nicknamed her Bebe) was born in Minneapolis in 1925. She earned a degree in music at the University of Minnesota then moved to New York, where she worked as a researcher for Time-Life. Soon after, she met and married Louis Barron in 1947. As a wedding gift the Barrons received a tape recorder and began delving into the world of musique concrete (music created by sounds other than musical instruments, often referred to as “real world” sounds). In 1948 Louis Barron was inspired by the book Cybernetics: Or, Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, by MIT mathematician Norbert Wiener. After studying Wiener’s equations, Louis began building electronic circuits to generate sounds. That combined with recorded tape, created a unique and otherworldly aural experience. After moving to Greenwich Village, the Barrons built a recording studio and became entrenched in New York’s burgeoning avant-garde scene. In their studio they recorded the likes of Aldous Huxley, Anais Nin, Henry Miller and Tennessee Williams reading their work; they also recorded and worked with many like-thinking composers such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, Earle Brown, and David Tudor. In addition, the Barrons scored their first soundtracks to several experimental short films by Ian Hugo, husband of Anais Nin.

Directions:Imagine Mr. Brother living another day, as always, with music playing. Whether it’s one of his trusty iPods, or his home stereo, or working the soundtracks section of Amoeba Music Hollywood, Mr. Brother is eating, sonically, with the mouths of his ears.

To simulate this experience, as you read the below story of a day lived, you will be given certain music clips to play. These are inserted to provide you with the same tunes Job was hearing as he was doing what you’ll be reading.

For example, while he was writing the above directions, he was listening to this:

So, I was at Target the other day, looking to see if Method had launched any new cleaning products (which they had – a new toilet bowl cleanser, so I was happy), when I found myself looking at the pet toy section with fresh interest.

I decided to purchase a cat laser. That is, a little plastic mouse which shoots a red laser point; the idea being that the cat will think the red spot is some kind of living, flying, glowing thing and chase it around. Not every cat registers the laser, however, so spending the four dollars was a real risk on my part. You know me, though – I live on the edge. Cat laser? Purchased!

Before I left Target, I put my courage to the sticking place and ventured into the men’s restroom. The men’s restroom at the West Hollywood Target reminds me of jail, somehow. And yes, I’ve been to jail, thank you for asking.

Everything was going well – if not for my olfactory sense. I was washing my paws. A few sinks over from me was an old man in a porkpie hat. I watched, transfixed, as he removed both his upper and lower teeth and set them on the very public, men’s restroom sink.

I quickly left. I didn’t want the janitor to have to clean up any regurgitated Vitamin Water on my account.

You gotta love Boris. They’re one of those bands who are so consistently good at what they do that a sizable bulk of their fans will forever find themselves buying anything and everything they can get their hands on. Because of their penchant for limited releases and gorgeous packaging, plus the usual import price tag -- ouch, Boris collectors have it pretty rough no matter how you slice it.

While we cannot blame Boris for wanting to deliver the very best of their artistic capabilities in the most aesthetically pleasing manner possible, it seems a shame that they seem to sacrifice the availability of their talents to the full scope of their fan-base. That being the case, I have to say, and please excuse the inherent perversity of the statement, God bless Southern Lord for bringing Boris accessibly and affordably to the states.

The band’s latest release, entitled Smile, is nothing short of what any Boris fan would expect from the genius rock-smiths the trio have proven themselves to be. For familiarized ears it is, neatly put, every Boris album you’ve ever heard divided by your four favorite Boris songs, figuring in new collaborations with Ghost’s Michio Kurihara and Stephen O’Malley of sunn0))). Sound redundant? Don’t be silly: Boris knows no redundancy when it comes to rocking your face off, nor any limits, for that matter.

It begins as a slow, menacing rumble, suggesting the gathering of thunder-clouds clamoring to assault your naked ears, but what follows is a rather straight cover of PYG’s "Flower Sun Rain," except that it sounds something like a watercolor interpretation of the song; it’s as if PYG’s original, decidedly heavy folk-rock song is a solid ink splotch which Boris deliberately drenches. The song bleeds its sound slowly, heart-wrenchingly, toward the alarmingly sudden gleeful sound of a little girl laughing and -- BOOM! -- just like that, we’re reminded that Boris began as a punk band. The “danger zone” triptych of "BUZZ-IN," "Laser Beam," and "Statement" seem to jive sonically with the fighter jet depicted in the cover art; the three songs writhe frantically and unpredictably as the players shred through one frenzy to the next, dredging up comparisons from G.B.H. to Venom with some ol’ fashioned, heavy “hair” metal thrown in for dirty-good measure. Here's the video for "Statement":

Among the piles of everyday hits and misses I plow through upstairs in the vinyl vault, there's always plenty of curios. I've put aside a handful of UK releases that caught my eye recently and decided to check out the stories behind the labels, here's a bit of briefing...

77 Records was started by Doug Dobell who ran Dobell's Jazz Record Shop in London. He specialized in rare Trad Jazz and Blues recordings. As far as I could tell, York Records was a short lived Decca subsidiary, with heavy Yorkshire connections, it seems that it might have been run by a "Yorkshire TV" shoppe. Automatic Record Co. was a Warner subsidiary started by Nick Mobbs that had a few Modern Rock releases in the early 80's...

VJM specialized in 78 and unreleased rarity comps from Blues & Trad Jazz artists, I believe the organization is still around today. Topic started off as a vinyl label releasing Folk titles and still releases UK folk music on CD.

Funny how time flies by. Already it is eleven long hip-hop years since Minneapolis, Minnesota hip-hop duo Atmosphere, comprised of producer Ant and emcee Slug (L-R in photo left), responsible for putting the Twin Cities firmly on the hip-hop map, dropped their debut album, 1997's Overcast!.

Last Tuesday they dropped their fifth studio album (and finest release to date): When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold on Rhymesayers Entertainment.

As you can imagine with this brand new album just dropping, both members of Atmosphere are pretty busy, caught up in their current tour which hits LA and San Francisco next week. They will stay that way for much of the year as they promote this new release. But in the past few days I had the opportunity to catch up with Slug, via email, to ask him about hip-hop, the new album, the word on a future Felt (with MURS) album, and how it feels to be going strong eleven long hip-hop years later. Did he ever envision himself being where he is now in his career? "Ha. Yeah. I think our expiration date was somewhere in 2002 but I'm not complaining," he replied. "I'll keep going 'til I get fired or replaced by a younger stronger, more attractive idiot."

"Our approach musically was different. We wanted to find a bigger but more minimal sound for this album," he says of how When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint That Shit Gold is unlike previous Atmosphere releases, adding that, "Lyrically, I wanted to write about other people's problems for once." The new 15 track album (avail in two different packaged CD versions) is rich in ever-engaging, flawed character driven, tales, many tackling the issues of parenthood, like "In Her Music Box" and "Shoulda Known." In the latter song Slug raps:

Even in a multicultural, polyglot city likeLos Angeles (which has the largest population of Asian-Americans(1.4 million)in the country and where the percentage of the population which is Asian-American is roughly twice that which is black) most discussions of race appear continue to be framed in the outmoded, bipolar terms of black and white. For example, whereas a lot of people and many organizations honor Black History Month, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is by comparison almost completely unrecognized except by some Asian-American organization and individuals.

The centuries-long struggle and strife of blacks in America is well-documented and worth honoring -- many have suggested that Black Americans invented the Civil Rights Movement (some Native Americans might take issue with that). Asians, like other non-whites, have also been subjected to legal segregation, racist violence, widespread discrimination and harassment. So why is it that the Asian-American experience is so... obscure? I hadn't even heard of its existence until I was hipped to it by reknowned Asian-American rights activist, Ngoc-thu Thi Nguyen.

Last week at Footsie's was so fun I'm doing it again. This week we will be joined by DJ Kazue (The Standard//Soul People) She is one solid DJ, Deep Soul, Funk, Hip-Hop. I will counter with some African Funk, Cumbia and great Latin Funk I found this week. Together we will produce some great sounds for a Sunday evening. Come by, have a drink and show some love. Starts @ 9:30!

Back in 2000, when I used to perform at The Temple Bar on a regular basis, DJ Dusk was the resident DJ. I knew him as one of the Root Down DJ's and I heard him spin funk, hip-hop & reggae. On those Temple Bar nights when East L.A. would invade Santa Monica, he would unload the best Salsa, Cumbia and Latin Funk Jams. I figured with with his dark features, musical tastes and his command of Spanish slang that this his was one of us. Turned out he was born Tarek Habib Captan, son of a Lebanese father and a German/Irish mother. I wasn't the only one fooled. In an article in Los Angeles City Beat Magazine, close friend and Root Down co-founder Carlos "Loslito" Guaico didn't know either:

"For the longest time I was convinced he was a Puerto Rican from New York. Not just because of his smooth-operator and accent status, but for his understanding, love, and education for all types of music from hip-hop to house, funk, soul, reggae, and salsa."

Two years later for those who knew him personally or knew him from the music he played, he is still missed very much. The DJ Dusk Art & Music festival is not as much an anniversary of his death as a celebration of his life. The festival is being held at The Mar Vista Family Center, a place where Dusk mentored hundreds of kids that passed through those doors over thirteen years. Also performing tomorrow will be East L.A.'s very own (and Amoeba employee) Ray Ricky Riverawith a full band.

If you are a gigantic music fan, you've probably already listened to and absorbed Jimi Hendrix' music to the point where you might think you never ever need to hear it again. I know the feeling-- when I was in high school Jimi was one of the primary artists I listened to, over and over and over again to the point of oblivion.

So to you, the jaded, I say, hold up! Just when you think you've seen and heard everything (and maybe you have, but this was new to me...), here comes the fairly recent reissue of the 1973 documentary Jimi Hendrix, which was directed by Joe Boyd, John Head III and Gary Weis. I read about it in Joe Boyd's White Bicycles, and finally got my hands on a copy of the movie.

Producer extraordinaire Boyd was heartbroken by the bumps that came along with putting together this film. One thing he was dead on about, and what really makes this film compelling above all others about Hendrix, is that the interviews were conducted only 3 years after Hendrix' death, and both his contradictory and brilliant presence and the awe he inspired in his fellow musicians is extremely palpable. Heck, you can see it written all over Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend's still-freaked-out faces!

And then there are the girlfriends, so many of them. The one that stands out is Fayne Pridgon, who he met in Harlem and dated throughout the sixties. She's quite the feisty gal, and her stories about Hendrix are hilarious-- her manner of speaking is unnervingly similar to Jimi's. Her mother had a heavy love/hate relationship with Hendrix, which Fayne details in alternatively sad and silly tales. She remembers wide-eyed Jimi bringing home a Dylan record and flipping out that she tried to leave the room to go to the bathroom during one of the songs, nearly missing the best part! She also tells a great story about being on the subway with Jimi and their cats, who got loose.

Roadies and managers are also interviewed, folks I had never seen in other documentaries. Their memories are fresh: a roadie recalls having to stand behind the amps and hold them up while Jimi humped and flailed away on the front of the Marshall stack; a manager remembers landing in London in 1970 to a pack of paparazzi and moving aside, only to have his arm firmly grabbed by still-shy Jimi, who didn't want to be left alone with the press.

This past Saturday was that special holiday -- Record Store Day. Amoebites at both the San Francisco and Hollywood stores turned in full reports, so read on to check them out! SF is up first, then Hollywood:
To celebrate the momentous occasion of Record Store Day here at the San Francisco Amoeba, we had DJs all day, super stuffed swag bags to give to customers, extra special day-only limited edition 10" and 7" from artists like Steve Malkmus and Vampire Weekend, and we also had Mr. Alternative Tentacles, Jello Biafra, sitting at our Information Counter.

The day started off with a bang, with customers flocking to the limited vinyl-only product that artists had created just for Record Store Day. We quickly sold out of the Steve Malkmus and the Jicks, Built To Spill, Death Cab For Cutie and REM limited edition 7"s. Other popular items included the Vampire Weekend, Breeders and Teenagers 7"s.

At 1pm the DJ sets kicked off with DJ Vinnie Esparza, who brought the party jams. Balloons and even more crowds soon followed.
The most exciting part of the day though, was when Jello Biafra stopped by to man our Info Counter. The visit quickly turned into a hero-worshipping signing line, and Jello was kind enough to stick around to accomodate each and every fan who came to see him, signing their records and taking photos with them. Apparently he recommended a lot of Prog rock, like Magma! He also recommended Triclops to a lot of people. Triclops is playing an instore here at Amoeba SF on April 25-- this Friday! Superfan and Record Store Day DJ V. Vale even scored a mini interview with Jello! To see his review of his experience and the day, go here. For larger versions of the pictures you see here plus more, go here.

Including members from The Fleshies, Lower Forty-Eight, BottIes & Skulls and Victim's Family, Triclops! has released its first full-length album on Alternative Tentacles, entitled Out of Africa. I thought there might be some implicit comment on Isaak Dinesen's classic novel, but after listening I can't be quite sure. If the reference is there, it's layered in the pound for pound sonic boom and San Francisco punk infusion that makes up their compositional prog/metal-ish sound. Described as "Jane's Addiction jamming with Primus," it is a sound you must hear to believe.

Anyway, back to the record: at first listen you might not notice the intricacies of sound; spanning from volatile to formal to dynamic explorations, Triclops! offer you a cross section of ever-sprawling musical genres such as Experimental, Metal, Punk and modern Prog. When it's all said and done, Triclops! make you feel like a party to whatever is happening on the Dali meets Disney cover painting by Lee Harvey Roswell.

A quick glance at this week's Hip-Hop Top Five charts (all below) from the Berkeley, San Francisco, & Hollywood Amoeba Music locations (thanks respectively to Tunde, Luis, &Marques Newson) further proves what I've been feeling all along this year: that hip-hop is in one of the most exciting and healthiest states that it's been in for a minute. To my ears, nearly every new hip-hop full-length release dropping these days is quality shit. Sure, there's a few lemons here and there, but mostly new 2008 hip-hop is more likely to be on hit than sound like shit.

Another glance at these new rap charts also reveals that hip-hop has arrived at perhaps its most richly diverse stage in its 30 plus years. It's as if in 2008 hip-hop has all grown up, multiplied, and gone forth and conquered the world (of music) with a wide range of sounds all qualifying as hip-hop today. From the stripped down, style of Minneapolis' Atmosphere, to the bouncy hip-hop of the Bay Area's Lyrics Born (pictured above)with its funk foundation, to the trippy sounding Danger Mouse-produced new Gnarls Barkley, to the straight-up hard turntable hip-hop beats and cuts of DJ Quest, to the twisted soulful, ten-track, mostly instrumental, grooves of the new one from the late J-Dilla -- a hell of a lot of musical territory is being covered under the hip-hop umbrella of '08.HIP-HOP TOP FIVE @ AMOEBA MUSIC BERKELEY

Niñas Mal tells the story of a spoiled fresa named Adela whose single father is running for political office. As far as self-centered Adela is concerned, daddy never makes enough time for her, so she continually rebels... meaning she gets tattoos, body piercings and probably listens to punk. She's seen as a detriment to her father's political career so he sends her off to a prestigious boarding school which promises to turn her into a model daughter. Of course, Adela has other ideas; she butts heads with her suffering teacher and tries to disrupt the experience for everyone.

Niñas Mal is basically almost identical to any American tween movie except that there' s more teen sex and gratuitous nudity. Poor-little-rich-girl Adela is a completely superficial rebel-- extremely obnoxious and unconcerned with anyone but the conventionally hunky gardener at her school. Her classmates are broadly drawn stereotypes-- the bitch, the lesbian, the braniac and the ditz. She thinks she's got it all figured out but... you know where it's going.

Of course, Adela's pranks and obnoxiousness never amount to an actual rejection of her privileged status, they're merely bratty. Her father remains her suffering safety net. If you've seen teen novelas like Rebelde or Clase 406 where being punk is merely another brand of conformity that involves hair-dye, then you know what to expect from this film. Fight for what you believe in, kids. Parents just don't understand. Basically the message of the film amounts to nothing more than empty slogans and false sympathy designed to appeal to a young, eager, self-important and undiscriminating audience. The film is a harmless nothingness redecorated to appeal to children who don't know any better or care. If you're not part of the PG-13 set, it's best to skip this one.

I am still catching up with all the releases from the last couple of weeks, but there is really only one release to worry yourself about this week -- the full length debut from Flight of the Conchords. I know there are still some of you out there who have not yet seen the television show, but you really have no excuse. The 12 episode first season came out on DVD in November, so you have had plenty of time to watch it. Put it on your Netflix, go rent it from your favorite video store, or just go buy it. It really is that good that you might find yourself wanting to watch it over and over again. They released an EP of music from the show a couple of months ago on Sub Pop. But the full album Flight of the Conchords just came out this week. The album is packaged beautifully. I really appreciate when bands actually spend some time figuring out how they want the LP and CD to look. The artsy cartoonish drawings are perfect for this album, and the cartoon images of Bret and Jemaine look exactly like them. When you open up the CD they actually pop up at you, sort of like a pop up book. You also get a poster folded up in the inside of the CD. It is always nice to get a sort of unexpected surprise once you open up the album. The illustrations are by Tyler Stout and the art direction is by Jeff Kleinsmith and Dusty Summers. I seriously would not normally care to find out who did the artwork but I really am in love with the look of this album.
I have come to the realization that you may not really "get" this album unless you have seen the show, but maybe I am wrong. It is possible that millions of people will pick up the album and just appreciate the songs for what they are, or just treat it like buying a comedy album without actually ever seeing the comedian perform live. I listened to their original BBC radio series yesterday. Before the show was ever filmed they did this radio show. It is still hilarious and is done like an old radio show with a narrator. Some of the same sketches were also used in the TV show that followed. Just in case you are still confused, the show is about two musicians from New Zealand who are in a band called Flight of the Conchords. They move to New York to try to make it in the music world. Their music is sometimes a bit folky but they cover all sorts of music from electro to hip hop. They have one crazy fan who comes to all their shows, but not very many more. They have a horrible part time manager who has no idea how to manage a band. Each episode usually contains two music videos.

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

May - New Beverly's 30th Anniversary!
Friday May 2 The Multinauts From the creators of Dungeon Majesty, Telefantasy Studios presents THE MULTINAUTS an all new adventure saga set in an intergalactic post nuke universe. www.dungeonmajesty.comMay 3 Burnt Offerings
May 10 Smokey And The Bandit
May 24 Creature From Black Lake
May 31 Zardoz

June
June 7 Heavenly Bodies
June 21 John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness
June 28 Van Damme in Sudden Death

The competition, which is open to players of all ages and skill levels, is happening on May 17th in DC. There will also be chess classes for newbies plus classes in how to DJ, emcee, b-boy/b-girl, and a how-to create graffiti art class.

Inspired in part by the Wu Tang Clan and other hip-hop artists and fans' keen interest in the stimulating board game of chess, and taking its name from Public Enemy's classic album Yo! Bum Rush the Show, Bum Rush the Boards, was created to promote the idea of strategic struggle within the hip-hop generation. The event's organizers say their hope is to "harness the power of hip-hop culture and the science of chess to open the minds of a generation to a host of new options the world has available to them."
Last year in San Jose, a gathering of martial arts, chess, and hip-hop enthusiasts convened for a free hip hop chess exhibition/ grudge match -- also geared for all ages. That event had similar positive goals of wanting to teach hip-hop generation youth the mental benefits of the age old game of chess. The NorCal event, organized by the the InternationalHip Hop Chess Federation's Leo Libiran and Adisa Banjoko (pictured left), featured on the boards that day Banjoko, DJ QBert, Casual, Davey D, and Boots Riley of The Coup, among others. It was RZA who won the Hip-Hop Chess Federation belt at last year's tournament.

So here we have another batch of LP's with artwork in the "Modern Rock" style of the early 80's. Kicking it off with a Paul ButterfieldBack to the Future cover and into Lucifer's Friend/Uriah Heep golden throat John Lawton's 1981 make-over Heartbeat...

While taking the pic below in the Arclight lobby I found out that there is absolutely no photography allowed in the building. The guest services employee was kind enough to shout at me from twenty feet away. If he had asked me nicely, perhaps I wouldn't be posting the contraband on my blog.

This film was taken from two different short films shot over a hundred years ago along the identically same route in both 1905 and a year later in 1906 by an unknown cameraman, who captured the silent footage from a streetcar going straight down San Francisco's Market Street towards the Ferry Building. This short piece (one of many that utilize the public domain footage) edits together San Francisco both before and after the big earthquake of 1906. Footage from the Prelinger Archives, edited by Matt Lake.

Today, April 23rd, is the date most associated with William Shakespeare since it was on April 23rd 1616 when the great English bard died and it was also on this date, April 23rd, that most literary historians guesstimate that he was born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. You see, records prove that he was baptized on April 26th of that year - typically then two or three days after a child's birth -- so the agreed upon guessed date of Shakespeare's birth date is April 23rd -- also the date celebrated in Britain as St. George's Day.

William Shakespeare was a most prolific writer, who penned thirty eight plays, including the likes of Hamlet and Macbeth, four times that number of sonnets, plus numerous poems, including two long narrative works or poetry. In fact, he was so prolific that there has oft been speculation that he didn't even author all of his own work -- but personally I suspect that those rumors were perpetuated by jealous playa haters of the time. (remember they spread the same rumors about Bob Dylan). But more importantly, William Shakespeare, whose work has been translated into virtually every living language around the world, has also had his plays performed more times than any other playwright in history.

For more on Shakespeare online there are countless sites meticulously dedicated to the man's work including the AbsoluteShakespeare.com and PlayShakespeare.com, which has a lot of great information and links, with each and every Shakespeare play detailed and including forum discussions linked to each. There are also approximately 250 versions of Shakespeare's plays that were made into movies over the last eighty years -- a number of which are on DVD and available at Amoeba Music (ask if you cannot find) including the modernized setting, 1996 Baz Luhrman directed William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet starring a very young looking Claire Danes and Leonardo Di Caprio (see clip below of Act III, Scene I):

Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs was in acoustic Bay Area band The Finches for years. She recently made the move to Los Angeles and, as a result, broke up the band. Her new project is called PALMS and it's a new day for Carolyn-- PALMS includes electric guitar! PALMS will be performing May 10 at Echo Curio in Los Angeles with the Bay Area's own The Mantles and Colossal Yes. Here, Carolyn chats about her new band PALMS, some of the music that has made an impression on her over the years, as well as how she enjoys howling like a wolf, and her tribute to "Careless Whisper."

ME:So your old and beloved project, The Finches, has come to a close. Tell me about that and about the development of your new band, PALMS. Is your new band sonically similar to The Finches or is this a whole new thing?

Carolyn: Yar, the two bands must sound awfully similar to a lot of folks -- this weekend I played a show in LA and a new friend from England asked me if I ever listened to The Finches. That's only natural -- I'm still writing the songs, but playing electric guitar now.

Also, I'm recording the songs myself, so there's more time to mess about. I'm thinking of adding oboe to a few of the new ones. So far all the PALMS shows have been solo, but I've been playing a bit with my friend Katy Davidson (who was Dear Nora) on bass, and still looking for a drummer (or two). It's a much darker sound than the old acoustic pop; I think it needs a few more musicians to weight it down, and electricity to give it friction.

Engage any former Bay Area resident in conversation for long enough and odds are that in short time the talk will turn to what they miss most about living in the unique and special place that is the Bay Area region of Northern California. And one of the things that most folks who used to live in the Bay Area seem to miss most is the easy access to so many breathtakingly beautiful, scenic, peaceful places - all within a relatively close distance and time from San Francisco and the East Bay.

These numerous scenic getaway destinations include the recommended spectacular and dramatic Sonoma coastline, specifically the State-owned, public-access Sonoma Coast State Beaches that stretch for many miles north of Bodega Bay alongside Highway 1.
This recommended day trip from the Bay (about an hour and a half drive north from SF if traffic is light) offers a breathtaking rugged Pacific coastline dotted with beautiful beaches and great trails (of all lengths) that are wonderful to hike along -- and all open to public access.

This stretch of NorCal coastline is ideal for beach-combing, tidepool exploration, sea lion and bird observing, whale watching (January through May), reading, writing, painting, taking pictures, or (for idle fun) trying to find faces embedded in patterns in the numerous dramatic rock formations (like the face in the rock left), or simply relaxing and meditating while listening to the soothing sounds of the crashing ocean waves. Note that swimming is not advised since the ocean is very rough with rogue waves aplenty.

This time of the year is one the best times to go since in the summer months fog tends to stick around a lot longer every day. If possible make the trip on a weekday and avoid weekends, when most folks seem to make the day trip from the Bay. One recent week I made the trip on a weekday, arriving early in the morning, to find entire beaches (including Shell Beach which is a little bit of a hike down to it) deserted of other human life. Sure, a few hikers will show up here and there but you are likely to find a peaceful refuge nearly all to yourself.

Ever since I was a kid learning, practicing and mastering the sophisticated skill of dumpster diving, I’ve always been kind of fascinated by all things garbage. I think that’s why I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was young, to unearth and study ancient crap, and then take it home and put it under my bed.

Rubbish, trash, junk, waste, debris, rubble, crap or whatever pithy expression best suits the smell, garbage has always been one of civilizations greatest, never ending problems. I thought I’d occasionally dig into the tricky world of rubbish and blog some numbers, pictures, anecdotes or whatever gushes from my filthy, litter packed desk. For example, a 2004 study conducted by the University of Arizona points out that perhaps as much as forty to fifty per cent of edible food in the United States never gets eaten, an estimated $43 billion worth of edible food is tossed out every year. And here is something for Earth Day: the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex in the North Pacific Gyre has plastic floating debris covering an area thought to be at least the size of Texas, or possibly twice the size of the continental United States. There is an estimated 100 million tons of flotsam in the North Pacific Gyre region alone.

This was my first night at Footsies spinning @ Ant. Valadez's Odds & Ends.DJ Kutmah also joined in and along with Ant they simply rocked the place. Here are some photos of the evening festivities: DJ Ant. Valadez with Sasha Ali & John Lee Hooker looking on.

A post-depression era Argentina begot Cumbia Villera, a street electro-cumbia with lyrics that rivaled gangster rap. It started in the ghettos of Buenos Aires by Peruvian and Bolivian immigrants that brought their own style of Cumbia into Argentina in the late 80’s. Most Argentineans considered it lower class, especially by the music critics that have a stronghold on what is deemed important in Latin music. Two of the biggest groups from that scene, Los Pibes Chorrosand Damas Gratis, have a widespread fanbase in the villas of Buenos Aires as well as fans all over Latin America. ZZK label co-founder Grant Dull called the success of Cumbia Villera “Argentina joining the rest of Latin America,” which meant the post-depression Argentina was no longer an oasis for the Eurocentric. Argentina is now just as fucked as the rest of Latin America.
During the eighties, the modern Cumbia groups started using keyboards rather than the traditional accordion or a horn section. One of the coolest features of Cumbia Villerawas their use of synthesizers, especially the infamous Keytar. Pablo Lescano, who fronts the band Damas Gratis, is a master of his axe, as well as the other Keytar players that play in that style. All the bands have a particular look in both dress and in album art that separate them from other Cumbia groups. It’s a hybrid of Heavy Metal, Reggae, Gangster Hip-Hop, Sonidero and Soccer. It would be easy to mistake Pibes Chorros for a Metal band, with their long hair and their use of the Grim Reaper and Jesus Christ. Cumbia Villera’s heyday was in the late 90’s, right after Argentina’s economic collapse. Since then most of the groups continue to play in front of large crowds but it seems like Reggaeton has stole some of its thunder.

I often seem to be a bit late in writing about historical events on the anniversary of said occurrence; I blame time itself for not allowing me a few minutes to catch mybreath, so here I am, several days late, again, celebrating the birthday of one of my favorite characters of the 20th century.

On April 16th, 1896 Samuel Rosenstock (a.k.a. the once and future Tristan Tzara) was born in Moinesti, Bacau Province in Romania. Most famous as the author of the Dada Manifesto and co-founder in 1916 of the original anti-art and literary movement, Dadaism, along with Hugo Ball, Emmy Hennings, Marcel Janco, Hans Arp and Richard Huelsenbeck, Tzara is often credited with discovering the name Dada. One version of the story has him hanging out at the acting Dada headquarters, the Cabaret Voltaire, in Zurich,Switzerland, and randomly selecting a name by stabbing a French-German dictionary with a knife, picking the word impaled by the blade’s point. Dada is a French child's colloquialism for hobby-horse. If it isn’t true, at least it’s good myth. Besides the knife play and original manifesto, Tzara, as leading agitator, also wrote many of the earliest Dada documents including La Première Aventure céleste de Monsieur Antipyrine (The First Heavenly Adventure of Mr. Antipyrine, 1916) and Vingt-cinq poemes (Twenty-Five Poems, 1918). Some of his later works include his masterpiece L’Homme Approximatif (The Approximate Man, 1931), Parler Seul (Speaking Alone, 1950), and La Face Intérieure (The Inner Face, 1953). [Last year for Tristan Tzara’s 111th birthday I decided to place 111 pink post-its, each numbered sequentially, on randomly chosen objects- buildings, cars, envelopes, people - anything and everything that got in my way as I carved out my day; I believed it to be a perfectly useless and wanky endeavor to pursue. This year for his 112th birthday I thought I’d celebrate by lying about what I actually did last year. Next year I plan on observing his 113th birthday (and prime number) in Zurich by partying at the remnants of the Cabaret Voltaire, and re-live what I did there 20 years ago; relieve myself on the wall outside, just around the corner from the front entrance, on the side street under the Commemorative Memorial plaque. Of course, I suspect, I’ll re-invent, once again, events in Zurich.]

I just returned from my annual trek to Dallas, which is always a bit depressing, but it's "home." Dallas is sort of the nexus where God meets commerce, with the former and its cognates of tradition and morality always losing out to the latter. All a moneyed interest has to do is play to the ideal Dallas existing in the minds of its citizens, and the local governing body will allow just about any historical site to be torn down. Hell, this largely conservative population will even vote for increased taxes if sports are involved. (As parochial wisdom has it, sports -- despite being universally popular -- are part of our Southern essence; God bless the Cowboys.) Consequently, the town itself (which, due to white flight, is more Dallas County than just Dallas these days) has little charm or uniqueness -- i.e., no sense of place -- left to it. It exists as pure concept, which is why it's a great place to be from, just not to live. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, thar ain't no thar thar. Anyway, I have friends in Austin, so I use them as a good excuse to go to the one true Texan town, Austin (although many of its long-term residents wouldn't agree -- but they ought to try living in Dallas). After listening to the Townes compilation that I brought with me, I discovered that my aunt had removed the cds I leave in her car for this particular occasion. That meant once more through Townes and then on to the accursed Texas radio.

Now, listen to this, and I'll tell you 'bout the Texas I'll tell you 'bout the Texas Radio I'll tell you 'bout the hopeless night Wandering the Western dream Tell you 'bout the maiden with wrought iron soul
-- The Doors, The Wasp

I'm no Morrison scholar and can't say I pay much attention to his lyrics, but naming a song about Texas radio "The Wasp" captures what often passes for culture there: bourgeois consumerism in place of illusory country values. I've yet to hear King Bob Wills on the radio (including the 25 years when I was a resident), but I always get my yearly dose of Van Hagar and 50 Cent every time I visit, just by using the scan function on the car radio. And if you ever wonder why bands that used to be called nü-metal are still putting out albums, out yonder is the answer. It all is the continuing (de-)evolution that I remember from high school, where all the wannabe cowpolks in FFA used to wear dusters and cowboy boots. They would pull into the school parking lot alternately blasting RUN-DMC or Reba from their shortbeds. They exaggerated their drawl and said stuff like "bulldoggyshit." Urban Cowboy was lost on them, if they saw it at all, taking it as another fashion code rather than a lament for dying cowboy authenticity within modernity's sprawl. Unfortunately, even as a fashion statement, it was already out of date for these future suburban cowboys.

A while back I wrote about DJ Ant. Valadez Sunday night DJ sessions at Footsies. I am honored to join him this Sunday. Come on by, have a drink (or several) and listen to us play whatever we feel. Maybe the vato used in the flyer will be there. You can only be so lucky.

Today is that special holiday Record Store Day, where indie record stores across America offer you, our customers, treats that only proper indie record stores can offer!

In addition to special Record Store Day-only sales, we here at Amoeba San Francisco will be offering a free goodie bag stuffed with swag while supplies last with purchase! Also available tomorrow, artists such asDeath Cab for Cutie, REM, Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks, Black Keys, and Vampire Weekend have created super rad vinyl-only releases to celebrate the occasion, and you can pick 'em up here!

Here in San Francisco we will have Jello Biafra manning the Information Counter from 4-5pm! You can come by and ask him about Alternative Tentacles releases, or what his favorite country album is! We will also have DJ sets by DJ Smash, V. Vale, and Aaron Axelson of LIVE 105. Check out this page on our website for more SF info. For information about what will be happening at the Berkeley store, you can check out this page right here. And for the happenings in the Hollywood store, click here.

On this Saturday, I'm going into my closest Amoeba Music, and I'm buying a CD. For the same reason I am going into my local bookstore to get an art book from them: I look around our communities, and I am tired of empty store fronts. So on days like this, when I think of the people at all these locally owned and independent record stores, my heart warms. Local jobs, here in our neighborhoods, keeping the flavor of life vibrant.

There's lots to do today in all the Amoebas, here's a link to check out the cool stuff. If you're not in California, check out the official website for RECORD STORE DAY. No matter what, you'll find something cool and beautiful. Just like you.

Paul McCartney :
There’s nothing as glamorous to me as a record store. When I recently played Amoeba in LA, I realised what fantastic memories such a collection of music brings back when you see it all in one place. This is why I’m more than happy to support Record Store Day and I hope that these kinds of stores will be there for us all for many years to come. Cheers!

Joan Jett
The indie record stores are the backbone of the recorded music culture. It's where we go to network, browse around, and find new songs to love. The stores whose owners and staff live for music have spread the word about exciting new things faster and with more essence than either radio or the press. Any artist that doesn't support the wonderful ma and pa record stores across America is contributing to our own extinction.

This evening Amoeba Music San Francisco will welcome hometown turntable master DJ Quest who, in celebration of his recently released new album Questolous (ZQ Records), will take to the stage of the Haight Street Amoeba location at 6PM for a free instore performance. Joining the veteran San Francisco turntablist onstage at Amoeba will be some of the collaborators on the new album including Eddie K, Luke Sick, Bas-1, DJ Oaty Love, DJ 2 Fresh and Dawgisht along with emcee Apostle this evening.

An established battle DJ and performing artist, DJ Quest's long list of accolades include his membership of the historic early nineties SF turntablist crew the Bullet Proof Scratch Hamsters with Eddie Def & DJ Cue, who produced the first ever DJ battle record (Hamster Breaks) and who in later years morphed into the Space Travelers (aka Bullet Proof Space Travelers) -- adding DJ Marz, & emcee Eddie K to the lineup. In more recent years he has won praise as the turntable musician in the critically acclaimed envelope-pushing jazz trio Live Human (with bassist Andrew Kushin & percussionist Albert Mathias).

As recently Amoeblogged about, the Upper East Side of New York City a has a new micro-powered radio station; one that originates from the Bay Area but is temporarily broadcasting for a three month engagement in NYC. The radio station (broadcast & streamed online) is the Bay Area's Neighborhood Public Radio (aka NPR), who feel that the real NPR is failing at what they are supposed to be doing -- providing community radio for the American public.

Click here to read the Amoeblog interview with Neighborhood Public Radio's Lee Montgomery (pic below) and Jon Brumit, which talks about the current temporary radio station set up in storefront studios at 941 Madison Ave -- a space (formerly an upscale women's shoe shop) owned by the Whitney Museum who (after curators visited one of their SF installations last year) commissioned the Bay Area traveling broadcast audio arts collective and their current piece, "American Life," to be a part of the ongoing Whitney Biennial 2008.

Since running that blog I did a broadcast on NPR and am doing another one -- with a bunch of other folks -- again this Saturday (4/19) from 2-6PM, which is 11AM to 3PM PST. So if you are not attending the big Record Store Day at one of the Amoeba branches, tune in online or better still, if you happen to be in NYC, stop by. Everyone's welcome to get on the mic and on the air. This collaboration with NPR will be about fourth or fifth one I will have done, since myself and my (Hip Hop Slam) crew have been down with NPR since they formed four years ago. We've done installments back in SF at spots such as ATA on Valencia and Southern Exposure Gallery in the Mission. At that latter one we had an art exhibit too, while in the radio part we had scratch DJs on a line of turntables, plus I was mixing in sound samples and also -- off a scanner -- live police-radio signal broadcasts from SFPD's nearby Mission District station.

I really enjoy when the big time artists have to battle it out on street date. It is like presidential elections or the Olympics. I just really love myself some serious competition. But I don't really like sports events... maybe I secretly do down deep somewhere and just let myself enjoy them every 2 years for the Olympics. Only a couple months to go until august and the summer Olympics will be here before we know it. Let's just hope China can become a little bit nicer by the time that rolls around. Every once in a while two big releases come out to compete against each other for sales, but it really seems that most days there is always an easily predicted winner. Of course, the top seller at Amoeba and the top seller around the country are rarely the same. Belle & Sebastian or Living Legends might be our number one record while Carrie Underwood and Clay Aiken take the lead across the nation. Last year Kanye and 50 Cent battled it out for the number one spot. I was really hoping for a battle between Madonna and Mariah Carey this year. I tried to persuade Madonna's label to bump the release date up a couple weeks like they had for Gnarls Barkley -- that way Madonna could have battled Mariah for the number one spot somewhat handicapped, without as much time for promotions and advertising. But it didn't happen. We just get Mariah this week. It does sort of amaze me that she is still relevant and making hit singles. I thought she would have gone the way of artists like Taylor Dayne and Jody Watley at this point in music. They all had huge top singles and albums at one point but quickly fell off the charts. They may still put out albums and play the gay pride circuit but they just don't have that crazy staying power that Madonna and Mariah have. I also find it hard to believe that Mariah Carey has the most number one singles of any solo recording artist. Even if you are not a fan of these ladies you got to give them respect for surviving this long in the business and still putting out singles and albums that drive their fans crazy. Other than a new Mariah there is not a whole lot out this week, but I am excited I get to finally talk about my favorite album of the year. I have had a couple but this new album for sure takes over as the best of the year. The band is called M83. Please join me in loving them. They are fantastic.
Just in case you were wondering what an "M83" is, it is an intermediate spiral galaxy approximately 15 million light years away, also known as the "southern pinwheel galaxy." But it also a fantastic band from France. Saturdays=Youth is the fifth album by M83. They put out an ambient album last year called Digital Shades Vol. 1, but I have yet to hear that one. The last real album was Before the Dawn Heals Us, which came out in 2005. Mute is the brilliant label that brings us these great albums. Like most electronicy "bands" there is one main person doing most of the work. M83 is basically Anthony Gonzalez. He parted ways with his past collaborator Nicolas Fromageau for this new album. The music is of course a shoegazing sort of sound, which seems to be all that I am listening to lately.

On April 17, Mr. Dante's festival brings us two directed by Roger Corman, The Secret Invasion and The Tomb Of Ligeia!

Joe Dante will appear with Roger Corman on Thursday evening!!

Joe Dante's film notes on this double bill follow:

"April 16 + 17 The Secret Invasion and Tomb of Ligeia!
This scenic WWII epic, shot in Yugoslavia in 1964, is one of Roger Corman’s least-seen yet most
accomplished films, with essentially the same plot as The Dirty Dozen -- which wasn’t made until
three years later! Stewart Granger, Mickey Rooney, Edd Byrnes, Henry Silva and Raf Vallone are felons recruited for a mission to rescue an Italian general from behind enemy lines. Roger used this story idea in his first movie, Five Guns West. I haven’t seen this since it came out!

Tomb of Ligeia was the last of Corman’s popular series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, but unlike the others it has many beautiful English countryside exteriors and mostly departs from the stylized stage-bound unreality of its forebears. Robert Towne (Chinatown) wrote the script in a more romantic vein, thinking Richard Chamberlain would play the lead--but AIP intervened and sure enough, Vincent Price took over."

I watched Into the Wild last night. Sean Penn directed it. It's beautifully filmed-- I could tell great pains were taken to capture each shot. The film focuses on the true story of Chris McCandless, an upper middle class kid who decides to "reject" society and live off the land in Alaska.

I thought it was interesting that the filmmaker chose to make McCandless something of a heroic character, through the overdramatic score and numerous reverent shots. I just didn't see him that way, so it was kinda tough going through the two and a half hours. Into the Wild just reeks of earnestness, and though I suppose there's nothing wrong with that in and of itself, I just didn't take to its subject.

For a more realistic and complex portrait of a human being living in "the wild," I much prefer Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man. Grizzly Man is a documentary about Timothy Treadwell, a dude who decides to go live in Alaska with grizzly bears, who he thinks of as his trustworthy friends. It's completely bizarre and compelling. It's famous in part because it was compiled and cut together by Herzog from footage Treadwell shot himself during his time in Alaska, footage that was left behind when he was eventually and inevitably killed by his "friends." This footage is intercut with interviews with friends and family. This film takes a hands-off approach to its subject. Treadwell is presented in all his humanity and it is left to the viewer to decide if he is a complete nut or a just a well-meaning but ultimately foolish idealist.

There's something about writing this blog that gets me to freely admit to all my trashiest pleasures.

I found a new one last week...it's Gossip Girl. Geez, I know. But it's so much fun to watch! It's all scandal and drama, unfolding at an addictingly breathtaking pace. In a refreshing move away from the oversaturation of shows about high schoolers in Southern California, Gossip Girl takes place on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It's about smart, bratty uniformed kids at a prep school and their sensational, overwrought lives.

This show is surprisingly good in all the ways that new "women-friendly" shows like Lipstick Jungle and Cashmere Mafia are not. It's exceedingly well-cast, with pretty rich boys and perfect princess girls. More importantly, the cast noticeably gels together instantly-- from the first episode they fit together and are believably friends, unlike the aforementioned Sex in the City ripoffs, which seem shallow and awkward. This show zips along, understanding its subjects effortlessly; a major portion of the show is the oh-so-2008 spread of gossip through cell phones. Something scandalous happens and every character knows instantly -- it's already been texted to them, or they have checked out the Gossip Girl blog, where the unnamed narrator of the show presides over regular posts about certain 'in' prep school kids' every move. This all creates an accelerated feeling of excitement -- most soapy nighttime dramas slowly unfold their drama over weeks of overly fraught and extensive close-ups. This show smartly recognizes that the nature of technology has brought us to the point where if a school mate is buying a pregnancy test and anyone happens to see it, within 2 minutes everyone not only knows, but has a damning picture of the event taking place thanks to their handy cell phone. Thus, the action on Gossip Girl is pleasingly quick, sort of instantly thrilling and constantly moving on.

Super unique & talented, albeit generally slept-on, longtime San Francisco emcee Z-Man flew out to New York City last week to do a couple of gigs including opening for the Alkaholiks at the Knitting Factory last Thursday (4/10) when the Gurp City former 99th Demention emcee, down with the Hieros, totally wrecked it on the mic (pictured left), much to the delight of the numerous San Fran transplants in the NYC audience that night, proudly representing in their SF Giants gear (no doubt they showed up to see both Z-Man and the other SF rapper on the bill Starski who is on the current LIKS tour).

Z-Man, as well as pleasing fans, managed to convert many East Coast-ers unfamiliar to Z-Dazzle's fluency in the Bay Area spun Gurp City** slanguage (word billy) for a tight set that included his song "OJ Simpson & Courtney Love." A great set, with DJ Thanksgiving Brown ably backing up the MC, from a true lyrical talent who I rate up there with E40 and the late Mac Dre when it comes to being a truly creative wordsmith, creating new words and always telling stories in a most engaging way -- a far cry from the usual tired clichés that pass as rap/hop-hop these days. For proof, pick up his CD "Dope or Dog Food" (Refill/Hiero - 2002) or any of the other releases of his available at Amoeba including his "Z-Mutiny" 12" vinyl release. Z-Man never disappoints.

So, this year's festival is winding down. This is the final full week of programming; there is one more double next Thursday, including an amazing Richard Widmark classic. Anyone not familiar with Mr. Widmark's career take note, this showing of Night and the City is a great starting off point. Anyone familiar with his work should come out and pay respects as he passed on March 24th after a lengthy illness...

Last Friday my young Sylvian got a nice earful from unannounced guest speaker James Elroy. My wife Esther spotted his mug when were eating across the street at Musso & Frank, so we kinda figured he was in the area for Hell's Five Hours & The Night Holds Terror, but we didn't know he'd do a number before the 1st feature. The always lovelyColeen Grey (who starred in Hell's Five Hours) spoke between the films; she's quite a charmer. Fortunately she wasn't chastised by Kenneth Anger this time around. Previously at a showing of Nightmare Alley, Mr. Anger abruptly corrected her from the audience about some detail or another, leaving her a bit befuddled.

Music historians often site The Diablos as the originators and early archetypes to the Motownsound. Formed in Detroit in about 1950 by high school students Nolan Strong and Bob "Chico" Edwards, the Diablos derive their name from, El Nino Diablo, a book Strong was reading for a school report. From the start the group's sound centered on Nolans’s eerily ethereal, lead tenor voice. (Musical talent ran deep in his family: Nolan’s cousin, Barrett Strong, wrote "Money'' and many other R&B standards.) Other original Diablos members included Juan Guiterriez as the second tenor, Willie Hunter singing baritone, Quentin Eubanks as bass with Edwards on guitar, and later on Nolan’s brother, Jimmy, would join the group as the second tenor.

In 1954, the Diablos went into Fortune Records to cut some demos. The owners of Fortune, Jack & Devora Brown, who founded the label in 1947, immediately signed them. Their first single, "Adios My Desert Love" (Fortune 509, 1954), was written by Devora Brown. However, their second single and masterpiece, "The Wind" (Fortune 511, 1954), was written by the group. This ballad has a curiously ghostly quality and takes full advantage of the groups strongest points; a simple guitar line plays with a light vibrato, filling in behind the perfectly sculpted background harmonies singing "blow wind," as Strong's incredibly delicate, smooth as silk lead carries over the top. The atmosphere takes on a rather strange quality during the bridge when, backed by a quirky plate-reverb effect, Strong quietly recites his lines about his missing lover. All and all, and truthfully, this cut is slightly bizarre but so evocatively captivating. And, of course, it went nowhere, until some eight years later when "The Wind" was re-released in 1962-- this time it found a national audience, hitting the lower rungs of the Billboard Charts. “The Wind" is now regarded as a doo wop classic and is much sought after by collectors. The Diablos would continue to record for Fortune Records until the mid sixties, though with various lineups, perhaps the reason the last few releases were credited to only Nolan Strong.

For someone who works in a record store, it's been a surprisingly long time since I've sat and just listened to a record on my headphones.

Astral Weeks by Van Morrison is the kind of record that demands close attention like this. The playing and imagery on the album capture the feeling of that pinnacle moment we've all experienced at times in life -- of love, of hope, of desire. There's a tinge of loss to the record as well.

The album sounds miraculous to me, and when the circumstances surrounding its recording are revealed, it becomes only more so. It was recorded over a mere 3 days in 1968, when Morrison was, incredibly, only 23 years old. He used jazz musicians he had never met before to record, and a great deal of each song was improvised. It's one of the only records I find almost impossible to sing along to-- the phrasing is incredible! As for the musicianship on the album, the bassline in "The Way Young Lovers Do" alone is like nothing else on any rock record I've ever heard. It's insane. Each musician's work elevates the sound to a place of complexity and also cohesion. Together they create a sense of otherworldliness, and that is what makes the album so special.

I can easily bring myself back to a very particular time in my life when I hear this record, and it's funny but even now, the more I listen to it, the more I hear, and the more I can sink my teeth into. I guess what I am trying to say is that the album brings more pleasure with each listen, even over a period of many years! When I hear the first few bars of the starting track, "Astral Weeks," I can't help but grin and sink down into the couch or wherever I happen to be sitting. It's like revisiting an old friend. The tracks gracefully amble along and I recapture things old and discover things new as I listen. This record has the ability to gut you on first as well as each subsequent listening experience.

Released 21 years ago, Robert Townsend's breakout movie Hollywood Shuffle stands the test of time, as witnessed by these hilarious but poignant clips from the 1987 comedy. What made Hollywood Shuffle -- which was directed & produced by Robert Townsend and written by Robert Townsend and Keenan Ivory Wayans -- so great was the perfect balance of satire and comedy it possessed as it accurately portrayed the rampant stereotyping of African Americans in film and television roles. And it was never far off the mark either. (Examples of stereotyping in popular American film and TV productions were not hard to find, offering Townsend lots of material to draw from. For an example of stereotyping in 70's TV, just rewatch an episode of Starsky and Hutchwith the comic book jive-talking Huggy Bear character played by Antonio Fargas in it.)

Hollywood Shuffle is one of those rare really funny comedies that actually has a strong message and says something of worth. Recently re-watching Hollywood Shuffle, which is available at Amoeba Music on DVD (ask for it if you cannot locate it in the store), I was reminded of all the great actors that were in it including the aforementioned Townsend and Wayans plus Damon Wayans, Dom Irrera, Don Reed, and John Witherspoon.

The gang fight clip (above) is where the Stereotypes battle with Townsend playing Jimmy, leader of the Afros. The movie is just chock-a-block with great scenes, including the black actors school scene (below), and the spoof on Siskel & Ebert, "Sneakin in at the Movies"(also below).

I’ve been working at Amoeba Music for over three years now (although I often still feel like a newbie) but it wasn’t until last Thursday that I had co-workers over to my house for the first time.

The reasons for this are many, and complicated. For one, whenever you have humans over to your house to visit, there’s all sorts of things one must do, like… talk to them… and… well, talk to them. It’s daunting! Nevermind the fact that my cat, Fangs, is only one moment away from figuring out how to eat someone.

My cat Fangs. (It's always hard to get him to be still long enough to get a good picture.)

You’ll remember (unless you won’t) that some time ago I blogged about the film crew of “Alvin & The Chipmunks” using the front of Amoeba Music Hollywood for a shoot, for which I was an extra (cast as a bouncer).

Charlie, who works in the classical music department, and Smithy, who works soundtracks (with me) and pop vocals, and I had tried to goad each other in going to see the movie in the theatres to find out if either Amoeba or I were actually in it, but none of us were willing to pay the huge (if justified) price of an ArcLight Cinema ticket, especially considering the film looked painful.

Me, relating the preview I saw of the movie in question.

We decided, therefore, that when the movie came out of DVD – which it recently has – we would congregate at my apartment, drink enough booze to buffer any psychological damage that watching Jason Lee interact with CGI rodents could have and face the beast.

BackWoods is set in 1978 and depicts two English couples on vacation in a remote community in Navarre/Nafarroa, Spain. The locals have bad style, are ugly and probably smell bad. They're also suspicious of and rude to the well-meaning and rather annoying city slickers. When you see Gary Oldman's character loading a shotgun you can see clearly all the way to the credits. If a gun shows up in a movie, it's never just to look at.

At first the film treats us to a bit of heavy-handed character development. Oldman's character, Paul, is a know-it-all and yet strangely likeable due to Oldman's considerable charisma. Paddy Considine as Norman is whiney and unsympathetic. Paul's wife, played by Virginie Ledoyen, is extremely unpleasant and nonsensical (women!) and Aitana Sanchez-Gijon as Oldman's wife is pretty unmemorable. They all bicker and snipe constantly till you're begging the locals to kick their spoiled asses already. One morning, Paul takes Norman on a hunting trip into the beautiful countryside. Norman is too soft to shoot a bunny. Paul says something like, "There's two kinds of things in this word: the hunters and the hunted." Deep. Things take an obvious turn when the two discover a girl with crab hands (Helpful Heloise, what's the proper name for this deformity -ed.) chained up in a shack. They do the sensible thing and abscond with her. When the backward, angered villagers catch on, it's Norman who will have to find his inner hardman if he's going to survive. Did you see that one coming? You did? Good.

If this all sounds terribly familiar and predictable, it's (of course) because it is. The film makes no efforts to disguise its exceedingly well-worn story and debt to its inspirations. It's content to get by on the adequateness of the cast and crew and by the story's sticking to tried-and-tested formula. I reckon it's set in the '70s simply because it's a particularly '70s genre. There are exactly zero surprises to be experienced. When one of the country folk attempts to rape a character, my reaction was, "I was wondering when the leering, greasy one was going to do that!" Because, you know, people in the country just sit around all year round just picking their rotten teeth... waiting for vacationing dudes and their womenfolk so that they can get their rape on.

When you like a lot of the sci-fi movies from the mid-to-late 1970s, you frequently are treated to Rubellian utopias populated by horned-up hedonists, robots who are polished like (coke) mirrors and multi-racial aliens all getting together at the space disco/cantina/casino. As with almost all science fiction, it's more a reflection of the time of it's conception than any like future. This stuff was heavily indebted to the sexual revolution that preceeded it and was wholly clueless about the AIDS epidemic lying around the corner. In the tense, cold-war-fearing 80s, just a few years later, sci-fi frequently fell into two camps. On the one hand you have bands of marauders roaming the post-apocalyptic wastelands in churched-up dune buggies out to terrorize the few remaining civilized humans, who are attempting in a harsh world to preserve culture and science and maybe the knowledge of how to grow food. On the other you have gritty near-futures where market economics and technology have exploded into fearsome things, exploited by crusties who can access the internet through datajacks in their skulls. And they live in cities called Neo Tokyo and the like. But, for now, back to the 70s...

As one can imagine, guest lectures from Californian electronic producers who dress in Victorian garb is not a daily occurrence here at the University of Limerick in Ireland. Gigs in this Irish city by Californian electronic producers are equally close to the ground.

Hence, the intense local media focus on one Alfred Darlington, better known as Daedelus, regarding his mini-tour of Ireland. The man's lamb-chop sideburns have been a staple image in both regional and national newspapers for the last few weeks, the anticipation around the city and university morphing into something so pronounced that you could feel the interest tingling in that cold April air.

I guess Irish weather has quite a lot in common with the music of Daedelus, given that both are unpredictable and dramatic – sometimes calm, sometimes wild. Despite this similarity, Friday (April 11) saw sunshine all the way for the Limerick leg of the tour, following his annihilation of ClubHeadBangBang in Kerry the night before.

Organised by the Music Technology Department along with local event promotors Kerrynini and Cheebah, the seminar took an informal approach in the same vein as the man's music: open, informal, inviting, all underpinned by a sense of chaotic genius. What was instantly apparent is the fact that Daedelus is truly a friendly chap, addressing the gathered students and beat-heads in a relaxed, modest manner, despite suffering from an acute case of jet-lag. Luckily, he's had his coffee. His accounts of his early explorations into digging were both fascinating and funny, relating how his competitive digging-buddies pushed him out of the funk and soul crates and into the altogether stranger world of childrens' recordings and soundtracks.

Another batch of awesome K-Tel goodies. Check out the "Body Moves" label underneath the "Dance the Night Away" paste over label. I wonder if it was just an attempt to up the sales or if "Body Moves" had some legal issues?? My favorite on this page is the Osmonds Kolob / K-Tel deal down in the last row...

Joe Bataan made a return to the to the L.A. area for a couple of shows this weekend. My friends and I drove down the 710 to the 91 to get to The Hop in Lakewood where Joe was to perform. Entering the venue, I got one of the most thorough pat downs from the security lady. The dress code was in full effect: no baseball caps, no t-shirts, no white tennis shoes, no jerseys. The message was clear: you can lean like a cholo, but you can't dress like one.

Truthfully, the performance was not as good as last year's show at The Montebello Inn but it was still a great time. The sound at the Hop was horrible and I felt the crappy sound affected Joe's performance. His set list was pretty much the same ("Ordinary Guy," "My Cloud," "I Wish You Love Parts 1 & 2") which kept all the homeys at the show content. A special bonus for me is that the audience was mostly from barrios of the South Bay (Gardena, Compton, San Pedro,Carson & Wilmington, for those who don't know) which is where I grew up. On top of that many of the Long Beach locals...or shall I say...locos, were in the house.

There were a lot people with tattoos of their children, more than I've seen in a while. Lots of of couples ass-grabbing during the slow jams as well as more women with the pencil thin eyebrows than you could shake a stick at. In short, I felt like I was home again. It was good to be back.

At the end, Joe thanked everyone for the years of support and headed to his merch booth to sign autographs. He said, "I'll sign anything you got. If you want to hang out or want me to come over your house to have some Menudo, I will. Just give me a ride! "

Up-and-coming East Bay groupDisgust Of Us (dOu), who headline at Balazo 18 Gallery in San Francisco tonight, Friday 4/11, are an example of a tireless, focused & dedicated group of young Bay Area musicians whose passion for their art overrides everything else in their lives. They're happy to be making music and playing concerts.

I recently caught up with the band members Cheryl and PJ to ask them about the trials and tribulations of being a hard working young rock band in the Bay Area these days, the BARR cooperative that they are a part of, and several other things related to Disgust Of Us. The interview begins below, past details on tonight's show.Tonight, Friday, April 11, 2008 they perform atBalazo 18 Gallerylocated at 2183 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110. In addition to Disgust of Usare Sister Grizzly, Project Alpha, andThe Union Trade. Admission: $5. 7:00 PM Art show by Marc Tweed and Jon Weiss + 8PM bands start to play. Concert is hosted by Pacific Noise (the online Bay Area TV show), who did an interview withdOu.

AMOEBLOG: First off, for people who may know nothing about Disgust Of Us, can you tell us a little bit about when and how you formed, who is in the band, instrumentation, etc.?

Kicked off in 1966 with a compilation of 25 country hits, K-Tel was a major force is the music industry year after year. It was founded by Canuck Philip Kives with money he earned selling Veg-O-Matics and Feather Touch knives he had marketed for Seymour Popeil. Mr. Popeil's son went on to found Ronco, a company that offered similar products, musical and otherwise. Specializing in compilation albums and quickie T.V. ads, the company moved some serious units. With huge series releases such as the "Hooked on" records, the company was a major player in the music industry. That series charted very high and went as late as '88 with the classic Hooked on House release.

Scary investments in Oil and Real Estate put the company in jeopardy, but regrouping and canny business moves pulled them out. Expanding into dalliances with that evil siren "the internets," however, has put the company into perilous straits. Time will tell whether or not this prolific bunch will weather the storm...

East Turkestan is the English name for an occasionally independent region occupied by China since it invaded in 1949. In Manchu Chinese it is known as Xinjiang, which means "new frontier", a phrase which belies its extrinsic nature to China. For the Turkic peoples that live beyond this "new frontier", the country is known as "Sharqi Turkistan" which translates to "Eastern Land of the Turks." The country is largely desert with towns built around oasises that were, in ancient times, important stops on the Silk Road.

The population of the region is mainly made up of Turkic peoples, the largest group being the Uyghurs (less commonly spelled Uighur, Uighur, Uygur or Uigu). Most Uyghurs feel more culturally aligned with their Turkic brethren to the West than the Beijing goverment of the East which currently controls the region. However, as with Tibet, China is attempting to dilute the region's culture and ethnicity by inundating it with Han immigrants lured by economic incentives and an apartheid system that favors them over the indigenous population. In 1949, when China invaded, the region was 75% Uyghur. As of 2003 it had been diluted to 45%. Ironically, identity in the region was largely based on the particular oasis communities and a strong coalescence based on a common, Turkic identity only really began in response to Chinese repression and occupation.

The always innovative and funky LA club Low End Theory-- at The Airliner every Wednesday -- has taken the show on the road to New York City, where in March it began a new monthly at the Knitting Factory there. It held its second night at the downtown Manhattan club over this past weekend where, judging by both nights' charged performances plus the warm audience reactions, it seems that Low End Theory NYC is a hit.

I attended the two Low End Theory NYC parties, including the first night last month when most of the resident DJs from LA flew east for the night. Onstage were Daddy Kev, Nobody, Gaslamp Killer, Nocando, Eliot Lipp (resident NYC) Flying Lotus (special guest) and the always amazing D-Styles (who did two skratch sets). This past Saturday (4/5) Daedelus (pictured left), edIT, DJ Nobody, Nocando, and Eliot Lipp put on another great night's entertainment -- especially Daedelus, who clearly stole the show. What a performer! Check the video from his performance below. And check this space in the coming days for when Irish guest Amoeblogger Johnny Doobs will write a review of Daedelus's scheduled lecture in Limerick, Ireland on Friday (April 11).

Meantime, I asked Peter Agoston, who among many other things in the music biz, books hip-hop related shows at the Knitting Factory NY, how he came to bring the Low End Theory to the Big Apple? "Daddy Kev and his squad created and cultivated the Low End event for Wednesdays in L.A. I've been to it a few times and even DJ'ed at it once," said Agoston, who spins under the alias DJ Thanksgiving Brown. "It's a fun atmosphere and the line-ups were always unique and very strong. I've known Kev for a while as a contemporary in the hip-hop game -- when I took the job as Talent Buyer for The Knitting Factory NY one of the first things I did was reach out to Kev to bring Low End to NYC. It took about six months of planning, but it proved to be a good idea!"

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

May - New Beverly's 30th Anniversary!
May 3 Burnt Offerings
May 10 Smokey And The Bandit
May 24 Creature From Black Lake
May 31 Zardoz

Friday May 2 Special Premiere!
THE MULTINAUTS From the creators of Dungeon Majesty, Telefantasy Studios presents THE MULTINAUTS an all new adventure saga set in an intergalactic post nuke universe. www.dungeonmajesty.com

Lots of good hip-hop flavored shows over the next few days in San Francisco, including DJ, producer and musician RJD2 at the Independent on Divisidero tomorrow night (Thursday, April 10) on a bill with Dalek and Happy Chichester - 9PM showtime. Also tomorrow is the Audiopharmacy Spring Harvest Tour with performances from the seven piece Audiopharmacy collective, the ten-piece Bayonics, the Duniya Dance Company, plus DJ sets from Ren the Vinyl Archeologist, DJ Coop D'ville, plus lots more. Showtime 9PM - 3AM at SF club Mighty on Utah. More details here.

And this weekend at Amoeba Music on Haight Street, San Francisco there will be a free instore when DJ Sake1 Presents Fania on Saturday afternoon (April 12) at Amoeba SF. Note the early showtime of 2PM. Read details on Sake1 (pic left) on Amoeba.Com.

On TV an Interesting looking documentary airs tonight about the so-called "hate edge" offshoot group of the straight edge movement - the hardcore punk based anti drink, drugs, & sex movement inadvertently started by Ian MacKaye when he and Minor Threat recorded the song "Straight Edge" back in the early eighties. Inspired by MacKaye's beliefs, since then a whole hardcore punk-loving and clean living youth movement sprung up, calling itself "straight edge." But in recent years this well-meaning movement has reportedly bred some members who have remained clean but taken to vigilante violence against drug dealers and other (as they see it) bad apples in society.

When I was growing up, my grandmother had a pretty good record collection. She owned all the albums you’d expect from a former party girl-Hollywood starlet-blonde bombshell who liked her mixed tropical drinks: Yma Sumac, Chaino,Esquivel,Julie London and of course every Martin Denny, Arthur Lyman and Les Baxter you could find at the May Company on Wilshire and Fairfax. And when I got little older, I dug a little deeper and conveniently found all her stag party albums on Fax Records featuring cover art of lovely and beautifully naked women, and at age eight discovered the musical charms of Terri “Cupcakes’ O’Mason! … but I digress! The best records she owned, that for me have stood the test of time, were the Tom Lehrer Albums.

Today the great man turns 80. Happy Birthday Tom Lehrer!

Music historian, record geek and novelty song guru, Dr Demento, has called Tom Lehrer “the best musical satirist of the 20th Century”. Even Mr. Lehrer, a Harvard Graduate, who taught mathematics at UC Santa Cruz until retiring in 2001, has been somewhat amused by the longevity and impact of his music career, though he retired from that vocation back in the Sixties. He’ll be the first to point out that his ‘career’ consisted of 109 live shows and the writing of 37 songs in a twenty years span! But these aren’t just any old songs! Songs like “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”, “I Hold Your Hand in Mine”, “The Masochism Tango” and “The Vatican Rag” are all timelessly classic, (at least in my interpretation of the construct called the space-time continuum, being three-dimensional and timelessness plays the role of the fourth dimension-- actually I should just ask a mathematician about that…)

Took my lovelies out to the Dick Powell double feature on Friday. We caught an atmospheric Italian dinner across the way at Miceli's before hand (always an oasis in the madness that is modern TMZ Hollywood) then headed over to the classic movie house. Master Sylvian used his trick cig that he had purchased at Hollywood Toys & Costume to have a smoke break between the hardboiled flicks and made a couple of innocents gasp-all in all a wonderful night! We'll be there this coming Friday as well, a special treat being billed as "Hostage Noir Double Feature". In the past, many of the movies listed as "not on DVD" come out soon after the festival is over, so if you miss something keep and out for it in our Film Noir section up in the Mez. Click on the poster to link to the Egyptian Theatre schedule....

The Breeders are a force of nature (no pun intended)! I wasn’t sure that they could up the ante after 2002’s Title TK, which I thought might have been the most perfect album ever and seemed to pick up right where Pod left off. To my great pleasure, they certainly have created an incredible album in every respect, possibly the best album of young 2008-- Mountain Battles. Blasting off with “Overglazed,” you are taken to another planet where The Breeders guide you through sonic terrain only they can offer.

Mountain Battlesis the culmination of many years of recording on and off with the assistance of the likes of Steve Albini, Erika Larson, and Manny Nieto in Los Angeles, Chicago and Dayton, Ohio, and comes complete with incredible design and of course classic 4AD aesthetics and style as a whole. Mastered at Abbey Road “because I’m going from half-inch tape directly to vinyl, there’s only a couple of places in the world that still do half-inch directly to the cutting of the acetate,” as Kim has explained. You can hear the passion and dedication to the art of record making in every single track of the album. Joining Kim and Kelley Deal (vocals, guitar) are drummer Jose Medeles and bassist Mando Lopez (of Fear), who played on TitleTK.

The namesake track “Mountain Battles” is somehow oddly reminiscent ofNico's Desertshore andLow-era David Bowie. The avant-garde composition works its magic whilst Kim croons “My wilting heart does shadow on the moon/ Fantastic view/ Thinking of things to do.” As a matter of fact, you can hear bits and pieces from decades of music history in the mere 36.5 minutes of the duration of the album. A few rise to the surface immediately – Jimi Hendrix, Isaac Hayes, Roy Orbison, The Pretenders, Wire... Isn’t this the stuff of which great music is made? Here one might want to consider the fact that the “All Wave” recording method was used in conjunction with on the fly mixing during mastering for a total analog dream sound end product. This “pure sound” method is opposed to using any form of digital recording manipulation and sound can be seen as a music making strategy or style parallel to the realist film movement Dogme 95. Ladies and gentlemen: sit back, relax, close your eyes and enjoy the masterwork that is Mountain Battles.

Corey spent the night last night. We threw him into a hot, bubble bath and played some Julie London…

…all to undo the stressful day at work. (By “we” I mean the royal we, of course – I wasn’t assisted by a gang or nuthin’. Gangs are terrible at helping people relax. Have you noticed? Like, when you’re sitting under a cork tree and smelling the flowers, a gang – say like, a gang of Japanese whalers – will amble by and be like:

And you’re all, “Japanese dudes, I’m just trying to smell the flowers!” Or, you’re picking at some rhyolite in hopes of discovering an opal to polish and give your sweetie during the famous aria from “Gianni Schicchi”…

…and the two of you lock eyes and, in that one moment, you know that you’ve always been lovers – that every sonnet and song that’s ever been penned for love – have been about the two of you, and the devotion that binds you beyond the restraints of bodies and time and a gang of Crips, some Grape Street Crips say, come along and cause you to accidentally drop your foot-long hoagie over the balcony seating and it lands on Princess Diana’s head (this is before she’s died, obviously) and they’re all, “Gee whiz, we’re sorry. We were just hoping to find some slobs to curb,” and you’re all, “If you think any Bloods are gonna be caught at a Verdi opera, you’re crazy! Come back next month when there’s a performance of ‘Peter Grimes’ – they’re all over that Britten sh*t!” and they’re all, “Thank you. Sorry about your butty,” and you’re all, “Huh?” and they’re all, “Butty – it’s a British slang for sandwich,” and you’re all, “Oh yeah. Okay,” and there’s an awkward moment when they don’t leave but no one says anything and then they finally get the hint and go away but by then the People’s Princess is in your face and yelling at you and being totally unreasonable and for a moment – just for a moment – you think to yourself, “Just you wait, girl – you’ll get yours.” But you feel bad immediately afterwards because no one deserves to die in a car crash. Nobody.

Just watching this short Suicide Kiss musical clip from the cult Japanese gory thriller, the independent 2002 Sion Sono directed Suicide Circle, aka Suicide Club, you immediately sense that the full film that it is taken from has to be one sinister and unsettling affair -- which it is.

The musician behind the character playing Genesis in this clip got introduced to a lot of new foreign fans from his part in this movie. But in his homeland he is a well-known longtime Japanese musician - Osaka born, 45 year old Rolly Teranishi - known as lead guitarist and vocalist for the Japanese rock band, すかんち (aka Scanch) who disbanded in 1996.

Since he's kept busy with his solo career including this part of playing the character Genesis (the suicide club leader) in the gory thriller where in this creepily engaging clip he is found singing inside his so called pleasure club.

According to several sources (including Wikipedia), the plot of Suicide Club (available on DVD) begins as such: On May 26, 54 teenage schoolgirls gather on a platform at Shinjuku Station in Tokyo to commit mass suicide. As the train approaches the station, they line up on the edge of the platform, join hands, and throw themselves in front of the train as it is arriving. This leaves the station in complete chaos as blood literally splashes on the platform from under the train. In the midst of the chaos someone leaves a small white bag on the platform. Meanwhile, in a hospital in Tokyo during a night shift, the security guard is left astonished as one nurse disappears without a trace and another jumps out of a window. A small white bag is found in the hospital...

I get really excited about new music all the time-- sometimes it is a bit overwhelming. There is literally so much out today that I don't even know what to talk about. The writers strike may be over, but you can obviously feel its effect when you look at the movies out now in theaters. I have never seen it look so bad. I never thought I would actually choose to go see movies like the Bank Job and 21 simply because there was nothing else out there. But there has been no strike in the music business-- the albums just keep on coming out and I am not even getting time to spend with the albums I love. I have to move on to other ones and leave my favorite albums from weeks ago behind. I like to think that I have good taste when it comes to music, but I seriously have been liking a lot of albums lately. This week some of our old favorites have fantastic new albums. The Breeders have a new album out called Mountain Battles. I will forever love Kim Deal because of the Pixies, so she can really do no wrong. This album has grown on me and I find myself liking it much more that their last one. Nick Cave also has a new album out today. I have not had much time with it yet, but I do like it so far. I really can't stop thinking about seeing him at the Hollywood Bowl. The show is like a year away but I am already getting so excited. The Hollywood Bowl is one of my favorite places in the world. And Nick Cave + Hollywood Bowl = magic. Trent Reznor decided to do a completely instrumental Nine Inch Nails album. It is called Ghosts I-IV. I listened to it today and I sort of forgot it was Nine Inch Nails halfway through it. I do like myself some instrumental music and there were some really great songs on it, I am just not sure I really get it yet. I did find myself wishing for those Trent Reznor vocals on many of the songs. I just need to give it some more time. The Drift has an amazing all instrumental album out today called Memory Drawings. The album sounds similar to their label mates Explosions in the Sky. I know Wumpscut is not for everybody, but I found myself obsessed with their album Bone Peeler from a couple of years ago. I seriously listened to that album over and over again. Sometimes I need some hard and intense dark music in my life. And Wumpscut don't ever let me down.

Once again Amoeba Music has been immortalized in song. This time it is courtesy of the brand new album Show You The World by Cali hip-hopper The Grouch (out tomorrow, April 8, when he and the whole Living Legends crew will perform for free at Amoeba Hollywood @ 7PM). Amoeba Music is name-checked in the song "The Bay To L.A." that features fellow Living Legends crew emcee MURS. The song -- off the 15-song new album from the LA artist with deep Bay Area history, not to mention Amoeba history, since we were the first store to carry the once struggling mid-1990's young hip-hop collective -- includes the lyrics, "the Bay to LA, like Amoeba player" - and with its distinctly Bay Area- flavored, synth-drenched infectious beat and catchy lyrics, "The Bay To LA" is the hit of the summer of 2008 just waiting to happen. I bet money on it.
Also on the recommended new album from The Grouch is the observantly sharp & witty song "Artsy" (with lots of LA references) which has an equally great video (shot reportedly for just $3000), which you can see above. And the new Grouch album, his first since his collab with Zion I two years ago and his first solo in five years, is influenced greatly by the 2006 arrival in his life of his young daughter Rio, who is featured both on the album's cover art (see left) and on the new release's intro track. The album and also the Living Legends new hip-hop collective project, The Gathering, are both on Legendary Music and are both dropping tomorrow (April 8th). To celebrate the two new releases, the entire collective will perform a free show at Amoeba Music Hollywood at 7PM which will be streamed (audio/video) live via this website. Don't miss it!

Happy Eazy-E Day, a holiday observed over in Compton by order of the mayor. I'm not sure what customs are attached to the day so I'll just share my Eazy-E story.

I first heard Eazy-E back in 1988 when I was in junior high. Even before I heard him, I'd heard of him. Back then, new music was still mostly disseminated by word of mouth and the trade of mixtapes. Our computers were Apple ][es and the internet was still just one of Al Gore's fantasies. The only rap they played on the radio was harmless (but fun) stuff like Whodini, UTFO and the Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff. But just looking around the school hallways it was obvious that there was more to the hip-hop world than what got played on the air. Kids wore enormous clocks around their necks like Flava Flav of the airplay-denied Public Enemy. When teachers distinguished me from another Eric by referring to me as "Eric B.," the question "where's Rakim?" often followed-- uttered by a savvy classmate. The rap that most people listened to as far as I know (with the exception of Ice-T, Too $hort ) was either from the East or South Coasts. Then, seemingly overnight, kids started wearing Raiders and Kings gear. A wind picked up from the west...

One day around that time, my younger brother Evan and I were out riding bikes down past Bill Wolf's property. Bill Wolf was kind of a big man out in the country who built a lot of homes, owned a lot of land and used to shoot copperheads-- plus he claimed to have seen panthers in the woods behind our house, long before they were officially verified to have returned to the area. I remember the tar on Old Mill Creek Road used to bubble in the heat and pop under my Schwinn's deliberately swerving tires. There was probably the loud buzz of cicadas in the air. Down by Mill Creek (where I used to try to catch crawdads) Evan (riding our sister's orange 3-speed) found a chewed up, discarded cassette by the bridge. He said that the tape was unraveled and draped across some weeds. It was labeled "Eazy Duz It." I got excited at the opportunity suddenly afforded us to listen to something we probably wouldn't otherwise hear. Evan wound the tape back up with his finger and took it back to the house.

Here’s the deal. As it was happening -- nothing happened, and when it happened it wasn’t happening anymore – I have to knock out this note before the day wiggles away. Lately, living has been bent from the front, so next go round I’m pinning this date on my wall, whip it around my prehensile wits; flip the switch that says stick. So done, so be it, now shout yeah! All the what’s and who’s and why’s jump out from everywhere and serenade the guru of gone! Happy Birthday! Belated or not, to the original gasser, the original hipster saint, the most far-out cat that ever stomped on this Sweet Green Sphere, who’s wailin', groovy hipsemantic orations tramped through the wiggage in our graciously affluent playground: the wordland we call the English language! The man, the years, the most flip embodiment of a life lived cool … none other than His Majesty, His Hipness, Lord Buckley! Birthday 102 …and though he found “the theme of the beam of the invisible edge” back in ‘60, they’re still digging his scrabble and his mad heart, looting strange truths from the head, all truths, even the feral truths, scribbling, splattering jive laid down to his bop ... as his Royal Flipness’ once said - “they supersede and carry on beyond the parallel of your practiced credulity.”

Though Lord Buckley is known for his "hip-semantic" interpretation of history, literature, and culture, sporting a waxed mustache, dressed to the nines and expounding on life in the manner befit of British aristocracy, intoned by way of Jazz riffs versed by hemp-headed hepcats, Lord Buckley was actually born in a coal-mining town in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada on an Indian reservation in Tuolumne, California, in 1906. Richard Myrle Buckley worked as a lumberjack as a kid and entered the world of showbiz by way of the medicine, carnival, and tent show circuit, eventually gigging in the speakeasies of Chicago during the 1920s, emceeing dance marathons and vaudeville shows, even playing on Broadway during the Depression. By the 1940’s he was working steadily in Jazz clubs, befriending many of the greatest musicians of the era. During the Second World War Buckley toured with the USO Shows and became close friends with, of all people, Ed Sullivan. By the 1950’s the unclassifiable Lord Buckley was cast as a comedian, his humor combined his incredible detailed knowledge of the language and culture; his true hepcat persona became one part stump preacher, one part raconteur, another part grifter and huckster, producing one of the strangest comedic personas ever invented.

I once saw Townes Van Zandt perform when I was seventeen. I had some older friends, the kind of friends that liked to expose art to us younger folks. They took me and my friend Tamala, who was the same age as me, to see a revue done by Peter Case and Victoria Williams at McCabe’s Guitar Shop. All that folky shit was foreign to me, so naturally, I wanted to go to the show. The show was an old fashion folk revue. Each artist did a few songs on their own before coming all together to perform. First up was Victoria Williams, with her southern charm and squeaky voice. Former Dream Syndicate leader SteveWynnfollowed her. I remember thinking Steve Wynn was boring, but that was a few years before I heardThe Days Of Wine And Roses, which is one of L.A.’s finest albums and a personal favorite of mine much later in life. Actor Harry Dean Stantonfollowed and played a few songs, including a haunting version of "Cancion Mixteca," a song from the movie, Paris, Texas. It tripped me out that the actor was singing in Spanish. Of course, a few years later when I actually saw the movie Paris, Texas, I thought that the song, the soundtrack, the movie and Harry Dean Stanton were all brilliant.

After a brief set by Peter Case, everyone started performing songs together. Then Peter Case announced that he had a big surprise. As the rest of the musicians left the stage, he introduced Townes Van Zandt . Townes came on stage with his guitar and a suitcase. He had a show the next night at the same place and the promoters had just picked him up from the airport. I, of course, did not know who he was, but my older friends were about the crap in their pants.

For some reason as a teenager I was convinced to be a part of a play shown at The Torrance Community Theater. The first time I saw Waiting For Guffman, all those traumatic memories of community theater came roaring back: the bad dialogue, the cheap props and the egos of the lifer community theater players. I saw Guffman on tour when it came out back in 1997 at a movie theater in Portland. It was one of those theaters that served beer. Everyone in my band at the time hated the movie. I of course, because of my traumatic experience with the Torrance Community Theater, loved it.

Last night IFC showed it twice and I saw it twice. Too funny. Here are some of my favorite parts, courtesy of Youtube:

Not to bite Whitmore's previous blogs about The Los Angeles Dodgers, but I wanted to write about the start of the baseball season, Last Sunday I went to check out the Dodgers and as I walked up the stairs to my seat, I couldn't help but take a picture of one of my all-time favorites.

Fernando Valenzuela was the pride of Mexico. The biggest reason why the Dodgers are Los Doyers now has everything to do with him. Mexicanos who had no previous interest in baseball, suddenly filled the stadium every time he pitched. In a city so enamored by The Lakers, Fernandomania swept through Los Angeles. He should be in the Baseball Hall Of Fame. He was the only person to win the Cy Young Award and The Rookie Of The Year in the same year (1981) and helped The Dodgers win the World Series over the the dreaded New York Yankees, In 1990, he pitched a no-hitter. The Dodgers ended his career prematurely by overusing him, mostly to get more people through the turnstiles. Still, to see him in his heyday was something else.

I feel the same pride with Alejandro Ocana, otherwise known as 2Mex. He, along with Xololanxinco, formed OfMexican Descent, who were the first Chicano rappers that I heard that went beyond what other Chicano Rappers had done previously. Before them it was all Gangster Rap or the numerous Cypress Hill knock-offs. 2Mex lyrics have content, cultural pride and he can freestyle with the best of them. He has numerous collaborations, solo projects and releases. On top of that he is also a part of the Visionaries crew. Check out his insane discography

The Grove is the WORST. I can't believe it's owned by the same company as the Arclight.

Blech.

The assholes below were sitting in the row in front of us. They didn't want to be "gay" so they left an empty seat between them. They didn't want to "talk" over that empty seat so they fucking TEXT MESSAGED each other throughout the whole movie. I guess their texts were hilarious because they kept cracking up. I thought they left half way through the film after I yelled at them for the millionth time. But no, they came back. They probably went to complain that I was harassing them. Oh well.
After the show they didn't want me to take photos of them. I only wish I could have gotten better snaps.

As you can see below, validated parking should be $2 for the first four hours. Somebody forgot to let the the theater know it's actually $3. It was a treat I found out when exiting the parking structure. Unfortunately, the photographic evidence below did not help us get out of paying the extra dollar.

Last week I received a frantically excited email from our floor manager Tony Green-- Mick Jones of The Clash had just been in the store! He was with Tony James from Carbon Silicon!

And, as the above photo attests, it's true! Tony Green tells me Mick was a complete sweetheart, even taking a walk down memory lane with him, remembering the Clash show in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1979 that our Tony had attended. It's good to know Mick is still up on politics-- apparently he purchased a great many politically-related DVDs.

I recall hearing similar sweetheart stories about Joe Strummer, who played an instore at Amoeba back in 2001. Strummer went to nearby bar Murio's and had a drink with a few of our employees!

It goes without saying that The Clash remain one of the most thrilling and passionate bands to ever make their mark on the musical world. Check out an old, semi-awkward yet exceedingly entertaining interview with Tom Snyder and the members of The Clash from their vital, ducktailed heyday:

For the second time in about 18 months, I’ve found a copy of the single by Gloria Walker and the Chevelles"Talking About My Baby" on Flaming Arrow Records. Now you might know her from "You Hit the Spot Baby", a classic, much desired funk track collectors crap their knickers for, with its heavy drum and bass groove, scratchy and dirty guitar lead that cuts in under Walker's vocals. Scratchy guitar? I mean nasty! Nasty as the sound of hell on a sinner’s holiday!

Anyway back to where I started, "Talking About My Baby"hung around the R&B Charts for 9 weeks in late 1968 and into ‘69, eventually climbing to #7. Unfortunately, as was often the case with way too many great R&B records, it barely made a dent on the Pop Charts, peaking at #60. Now, this is a truly peculiar slab o’ vinyl. For example, on the flip side, the instrumental "The Gallop," (and yes it sounds like a lot like Cliff Nobles’ "The Horse"!), the Chevelles -- who I suspect were the label's house band -- play mostly tight, funky, perhaps a little over the top, but in tune. This is not necessarily true on Gloria Walker’s side!

In “Talking About My Baby,” Miss Walker is lamenting the behavior of her man in a monologue that ends with the lyrics from Etta James’ “I’d Rather Go Blind”. At the top there’s an understated soulful bass line, some minimal guitar work with just a touch of vibrato. Mood … cool and laid back. So the saga begins with Gloria, a little sad, talking, reminiscing, about her boyfriend and what she used to think was true about her love. The story slides away for a second, then WHAM! Two second later she’s going off about what you really need to worry about is your close girl friends, because when they tell you about your man’s cheating ways, they’re just “trying to get some for themselves!" Set into motion is a deeply paranoid rant, and Gloria Walker’s monologue ends with her shouting “Dirty! Dirty! Dirty!” to her girl friends, to her ex, and to anyone else within earshot! Simply said, she becomes completely unhinged, (then again I may be over-reading this whole thing and just re-living some of my own personal shit …). The song ends with her super souled-up, desperate vocals digging into the Etta James melody, the Chevelles horns come in underneath, WHAM! In what can only be describe as an absolutely ragged and bloody mess … the band is completely out of whack and totally out of tune. But ultimately does it matter? Not really-- Gloria Walker’s performance is still unbelievable! I guess it’s just the sound you’d expect from a one-take-in-and-out-of-the-studio situation, second tier bands had to put up with because you’ve got your Ike’s or Lee’s or Slim’s waiting (and possibly packin’) in the hallway. I’m not sure what ever happened to Gloria Walker, but she is my kind of woman: an out of her freaking mind crazy, surreal, hot chick that can stop time with a song.

The recent business news story reports on the $27 billion sales figure deal by radio station-owning company Clear Channel Communications to Bain Capital and THL Partners have focused on how the two big investment giants had, as of last week, sued a cadre of major Wall Street banks to force them to finance the extremely large dollar takeover. You see, with all the recent drama and fallout and uncertainty of the US economy, the Wall Street bankers who were supposed to finance the takeover (initially agreed to in 2006) basically got cold feet.

In court Bain and THL said that the banks supposed to pony up the cash essentially had "buyer's remorse" when they realized that, with the recent turns in the US economy, that they would not rake in the profits they once foresaw.

Anyway, all of this news merely blurs, or perhaps further highlights, the real news story here: The story of the slow decline and final death of (commercial) radio, once upon a time a vibrant creative media form which in the last decade and more -- thanks in great part to Clear Channel, along with other like-minded, huge but soulless entertainment conglomerates -- has been drained of its former glory and destroyed essentially. This new deal is just the final nail in the coffin.

Of course there are still amazing non-commercial radio stations (especially if you are lucky enough to live in the Bay Area) as well as oodles of great specialized streaming online music feeds, not to mention your iPod's collection of your favorite fifty thousand songs. But long ago commercial radio also satisfied that same need to hear good music, new music, different music, and presented by DJs who personally programmed (and loved) what they played. But the days of fun, freeform creative commercial radio stations - a la the fictional WKRP Cincinnati or the real KSANSan Francisco- are long long gone.

In hip-hop circles, you often encounter self-appointed arbiters of hip-hop taste who decry certain supposed negative trends in hip-hop. One frequent target for these musical Taliban is the prevalence of "bling," which is regarded as a new corruption of the scene (conveniently ignoring Gucci-clad, Rolls Royce-flaunting, "paid in full"-singing Eric B and Rakim or the massive gold ropes that adorned every rapper from Big Daddy Kane down the alphabet to Yella.) These paternal advocates of fiscal responsibility feel that rappers should be saving their money, I suppose, and not spending on ostentatious jewelry.

These conservative cultural watchdogs usually then go into an oft-repeated, well-rehearsed diatribe about meaningless, party-centric lyrics, the lack of reliance on DJing, the importance of being real and other things that place them ideologically in the traditionalist camp alongside their trad jazz forebears that griped when jazz moved beyond its Dixieland roots, the guy that yelled "Judas" when Dylan plugged in and prog-rock fans who decried the lack of humorless, showy, technical proficiency when glam began took over the charts and hearts of rock fans in the 70s.

But music evolves, regardless (and sometimes in defiance) of the griping and sniping of those stodgy snobs who stand scowling and motionless with arms folded whilst the masses keep on getting down. In 1968 Nik Cohn virtually created rock criticism with his book Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: TheGolden Age of Rock. As the title suggests, Cohn viewed the meaningless, shallow, fun music of rock's dawn in higher regard than the pretentious progressive rock of his day. Another genre of music that haters love to hate is Bounce music. I felt like my love of this despised genre was validated, in a way, when the same Nik Cohn moved to New Orleans and worked with Choppa, an under-rated rapper from Algiers on the West Bank who had a big regional hit with "Choppa Style." Choppa dubbed Cohn "Nik the Trik" and Cohn wrote another book of criticism about his experiences, Triksta: Life and Death and New Orleans Rap.

Out today is the brilliant new album from Sun Kil Moon. The album is full of the intense heartbreaking songs that we have come to expect from Mark Kozelek. I don't know how he does it, but he creates the most depressing songs imaginable and he keeps you coming back for more. I just can't get enough of his albums over the last 15 years or so. They sometimes almost hurt me when I listen to them. Like the emotions actually become painful. I can sometimes feel the tears just by hearing his name or thinking about his music for even a second. It is sort of Pavlovian. My body had been trained to get emotional just at the thought of Mark Kozelek of the Red House Painters. This might not sound like very much fun, but I completely enjoy listening to Sun Kil Moon albums and I can't barely imagine my life without Mr. Mark Kozelek making music. My journey through his music began a long time ago. I still remember going to Morning Glory Music in Santa Barbara to pick up my fist copy of a Red House Painters album. At this point in my life I was very much obsessed with 4AD Records. I was determined to own everything on the label and had not yet been disappointed. I also based some of my purchases on album covers at that point-- this is how I first got into another 4AD band, This Mortal Coil.

The two self titled Red House Paintersalbums came out in 1993, a year after Down Colorful Hill came out in 1992. My first album by them that I bought was the "rollercoaster" cover self titled album. The cover was a brilliant sepia colored photo of an old broken down roller coaster. I absolutely love roller coasters and am a sucker for anything with a sepia filter on it. The album included "Grace Cathedral Park," "Mistress," and "Mother." The entire album is fantastic, and I guarantee you that this album will make you cry. It is really all about that fantastic voice that belongs to Mark Kozelek. The slow, dreamy, folky music fits in perfectly with his voice. Many of the songs on the six Red House Painters albums remain some of my favorites. I became obsessed with Red House Painters after this first album. I went back on bought the other two albums and patiently waited until 1995 for the release of Ocean Beach. This became one of those albums forever attached to a year in my life. I can't really think about 1995/1996 without thinking about this album. It was my last year in college and this was the perfect album to sort of help soundtrack my life that year. There was lots of Blur, Elastica, Gene, Suede, and Stereolab to get my through the year as well, but Red House Painters have been in my life ever since.

German musician Klaus Dinger, who played drums in the early days of Kraftwerk and went on to co-found Neu!, died recently of heart failure at age 61. As reported today by Billboard Magazine online, Dinger passed two weeks ago on March 21st, but the news was not widely publicized until Gronland, Neu!'s label, made the announcement today.

Drummer Dinger, along with guitarist Michael Rother, both played with Kraftwerk in the early seventies before splitting to form Neu! who were considered to be a major influence on such later acts as Sonic Youth and Tortoise. The above video is of Neu! performing "Hero" live in 1974.

For me, April is the best time of year in L.A. The weather is great, usually overcast with some rain, the last really mild month before we Spring forward into the instant summer blaze. It's also the month that the Egyptian Theatre presents the Film Noir Festival. Possibly the best history lesson I've had as far as L.A. is concerned, every year I get a new take on the "Noir City" via the programming at the Egyptian. Check out these scenes from opening nights Lizbeth Scott double feature. Click on the poster to the left to check out the film schedule...

It’s hard to imagine today the impact this tawdry but fascinating Italian "shockumentary" had on the world in 1962, when the bizarre customs of people in other lands seemed both exotic and horrifying to Western eyes. Its smash success spawned a whole genre of mostly phony Mondo movies, each outdoing the other for pure sleaze, which lasted into the 80s and paved the way for something much more upsetting: Reality TV.

ZULU is simply one of the great historical epics ever--100 stuff-upper-lip British soldiers battle 4000 Zulu warriors in a beautifully staged reenactment of the 1879 Battle of Roarke’s Drift. John Barry should have won (but didn’t) an Oscar for his brilliant score. The cast, led by producer Stanley Baker, is terrific, but the great Nigel Green steals the show as the consummate side-whiskered, mustached Victorian Sergeant-Major. With Jack Hawkins, James Booth, Patrick Magee and a very young Michael Caine, whose work here got him THE IPCRESS FILE.

April 11 + 12 HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD and TRUCK TURNER

We called it "Day For Nothing" when we made it (shot in ten days around footage from 12 other movies on a bet with Roger Corman). One of the last of New World Pictures’ popular "three girl" drive-in movies where pretty girls doff their duds and chase around non-permitted LA locations. The late great Candice Rialson plays a version of herself as a naive Indiana girl trying to make it in scuzzy 70s Hollywood. Pulled from 42nd Street after two days, it seems to have survived as a cult movie. It’s certainly an accurate record of what it was like to make a New World Picture. Producer Jon Davison, co-director Allan Arkush and stars Mary Woronov and Dick Miller are scheduled to appear.

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

May - New Beverly's 30th Anniversary!
May 3 Burnt Offerings
May 10 Smokey And The Bandit
May 24 Creature From Black Lake
May 31 Zardoz

Friday May 2 Special Premiere!
THE MULTINAUTS From the creators of Dungeon Majesty, Telefantasy Studios presents THE MULTINAUTS an all new adventure saga set in an intergalactic post nuke universe. www.dungeonmajesty.com

WESTWOOD- Derek Lajeunesse is suspected of giving a five star review to The Grim Reaper; a direct-to-video film he worked on the set of earlier this year. Amazon officials became suspicious of the five star review when they clicked on his username, "D-Licious55" and discovered only one other review -- a five star review for last year's direct-to-video horror film, The Yeti Horror which imdb lists Lajeunesse as having worked on as well. In both reviews, Lajeunesse posted the same text, verbatim, in the form of a narrative which is now believed to be fictional. "I walked into a small theater on a whim not expecting much. Boy was I surprised! While it doesn't have the big budget of Hollywood horror films, this little indie flick has a lot more heart... and enough gore to keep any horror fan happy. Awesome!"

The scam was uncovered by Justin Quinn, alias "TheRealTylerDurden," who watched a rented copy of The Grim Reaper based on Lajeunesse's glowing testimony. Quinn's review took a decidedly contrary view, "I don't know if the last reviewer is retarded or what. This movie sucked. It was boring and the acting and effects were awful. I'm only giving this one star because Amazon doesn't allow you to give zero!"

Control Release Date Pushed Back To 2011

NEW YORK - Tamara Jackson, speaking on behalf of her employers, The Weinstein Company, has confirmed her company's decision to not release Anton Corbijn's critically-acclaimed film for another three years. Jackson explained, "In keeping with Weinstein's cautious approach to DVD releases, we have thought long and hard and decided to wait until the smoke clears from the recent HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray format war. While Blu-Ray has proven winner in this battle, who's to say that some new, undreamed of format, like an optolithic data rod, isn't going to render Blu-Ray as obsolete as VideoDiscs?"

I don’t have much time this week; I’m nipple-deep in spring cleaning. I won’t sleep until this apartment shines like the top of the Chrysler Building.

As with everything I do – from cleaning, to cooking, to not doing math homework, to faking my way through a treatment of complicated parapneumonic effusion and pleural empyema by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery – I do it with music.

Here then, are some of my favorite things to hear when I’m wielding a Swiffer or yanking my Toilet Duck:

While I was polishing my silver bullet collection, I couldn't help but notice that my fellow Amoeblogger, Billyjam, posted an interview with me, which you can read by pressing the word "perambulator" in this sentence. It's really too kind. My only complaint is that he neglected to include the scratch 'n' sniff portions.

You know how it feels when you listen to a new album and it gives you chills up your spine and that feeling in your throat?Well, that’s how The Raconteurs' new album Consolers of the Lonely makes me feel.It’s sooooo good!!!The first thing I noticed that was somewhat different was the general feeling of the album: comfortable and relaxed.Now, I don’t mean the music sounds comfortable and relaxed-- the band does.There was a feeling of excitement surrounding the last album, Broken Boy Soldiers, since it was the first time these old friends had recorded an album together.This time around, they know exactly what they are doing and have evolved into the next level.They must have been enjoying themselves because the album is quite long considering the length of the previous album.55+ minutes and 14 songs as compared to 33+ minutes and 10 songs.

It’s exciting to hear the Nashville influence on this album.After Detroit turned on Jack White, he moved down to Nashville, as did Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler.“Top Yourself” and “Old Enough” particularly capture a southern country/blues feel, which is different than the more typically northern sound that was on their previous album.There is more acoustic guitar in these songs and some banjo and fiddle too, and I can picture these ol’ boys hanging around on the porch in the evening warmth just finger pickin’ these songs and enjoying themselves.

He may have "killed a man" as he freely 'fesses here in this exclusive tell-all Amoeblog interview but Job O Brother is one hell of a gifted writer and his Another Witty and Unnecessary Blog contribution to this Amoeblog section of amoeba.com is always guaranteed to be must-read material; the type of prose that leaves the reader fiending for more of its consistently engaging, well-written, and witty insights and observations on life - Job's life.

In fact Job O Brother's refreshing conversational writing style allows his readers an inside look at the personal details of his life - including life with boyfriend Corey and his workmates at Amoeba Hollywood-- is so natural and free-flowing that he makes it all seem really easy to write. But as anyone who has written a short story or blog will attest, to accomplish such results a writer must put a lot of time and energy into their craft.

"Job is a born writer, truly gifted," offered Brady of Amoeba's Bay Area Crew - one of the regular readers of Job's Another Witty and Unnecessary Blog. But who really is this Job O Brother? Does he write for other outlets besides the Amoeblog? Is he independently rich and only puts in time at Amoeba to get material for his writing? And did he really kill a man?

If you read Job's official Amoeblog bio we are told: "Mr. Brother was born into one of the wealthiest royal families in Europe. Having been raised in luxury only known to 1% of the world's population, he studied in the greatest schools and with acclaimed private tutors until he reached maturity, at which point he decided he "really, really wanted to work in a record store," which is what he's been doing and will continue to do until the demands of tradition force him to rule as King over his country or they hire him at "Donut Time" on Santa Monica and Highland. 'Which ever comes first,' he says."

It should be noted that Job penned this bio and, like some things he says, you never quite know if it is truth or fiction--nor do you care when the writing is so entertaining. So to find out a little bit more about Amoeba Music Hollywood employee Job O BrotherI set up an interview with the man, deliberately conducting it via email since this way I figured I could get him to write/type out his answers which I guessed would be as witty and entertaining as his Amoeblogs always are. I wasn't disappointed. Scroll down and read on...........

AMOEBLOG: Exactly when and how did you end up working at Amoeba? Was it something to do with them hiring you before Donut Time on Santa Monica & Highland had responded to your application?JOB O BROTHER: Confession time: A few facts in my Amoeblog profile are not entirely true. Yes, I am heir apparent to a powerful, European dynasty, but I’ve never actually applied for work at Donut Time. When I first moved to LA (a little over three years ago) I assessed the work market and decided that Amoeba Music was the ONLY place I wanted to work. I wasn’t sure when they would hire me, so I also applied to other places, but ONLY establishments that were soulless, corporate chains which I would feel no guilt quitting even after one week of employment, so that I’d be ready for when Amoeba called me. I even applied for a job at (insert f-word here, plus the suffix ‘ing’) Jamba Juice.